botanomancy

English

Alternative forms
  • batanomancy
  • botinomancy
  • botomancy
  • botonomancy

Etymology

From botany +‎ -mancy.

Noun

botanomancy (uncountable)

  1. Divination by plants. A form of pyromancy in which tree branches and/or leaves are burnt.
  2. Tea-leaf reading, or tasseomancy.

Quotations
"Diuination generally was done by diuers means...or by Hearbes, Botinomancy, the witches magicke." -- Vives in J. Healey Saint Augustine of the Citie of God, 1610
"By Botomancy, for the nonce I have a few Leaves in reserve." -- Urquhart translating Rabelais Gargantua & Pantagruel iii. xxv., 1660
"A method of divination by means of burning the branches of vervein and briar, upon which were carved the questions of the practitioner." -- L. Spence Encyc. Occult, 1920
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