Today's new word find is sure to be useful for demonstrating your erudition, dropping into conversations around the water cooler and confounding small children. Our word for the day is cleromancy.
Serious etymologists will recognize the suffix -mancy as deriving from the Old French -mancie or the Latin -mantia, a combining form meaning divination, of the kind indicated by the prefix. Hence, necromancy would be the practice of divination or foretelling of secrets or the future by consulting the spirit or ghost of a deceased person. Such a suffix can be combined with literally dozens of words to come up with your choice of divination. There's meteormancy, which is divination by consulting meteors and shooting stars; pegomancy, the consultation of fountains or springs; pyromancy, the consultation of fire or flames; rhabdomancy, the consultation or a rod or wand, especially for the location of underground water or ores. My grandmother was a professional rhabdomancer and was paid $25 by a water well company to locate water well sites. She taught this art to many of her grandchildren and some have used it in modern times for locating water wells for African villages. For a more complete listing of many possibilities of words using the -mancy suffix, consult here.
Cleromancy, therefore is a form of divination involving casting of lots. Clero, from which we get our modern word cleric or clerk, is derived from the Latin and indicated one who obtained his office through the casting of lots. When prefix and suffix are combined, cleromancer then become a clerk or clergyman who practices divination through the casting of lots. Biblical examples of cleromancers include Aaron and the Levitical priests, Joshua (Joshua 18:8-10), Nehemiah (Nehemiah 10:34), the sailors who were transporting Jonah (Jonah 1:7), and the disciples in Acts 1 when they selected a successor to Judas. One might be tempted to include the soldiers who crucified Jesus and cast lots for his garments. This story appears in all four of the Gospels, but it appears that they merely cast lots to see who would win Jesus' cloak, rather than seeking divine wisdom in decision making.
Today's One Year Bible reading includes the formula for the construction of Aaron's breastplate, which was to contain the Urim and the Thummim, and served as a basis of decision making. The Urim and Thummim were most likely gemstones that were used for the casting of lots. If you already knew that Urim and Thummim meant "lights" and "perfections", give yourself an additional 10 points. Hence, Aaron was the first officially ordained and recognized cleromancer.
Your final assignment for today is to confuse and amaze your friends and colleagues by using the word cleromancy in a sentence. Then move on to more serious matters!
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