Gastromancy

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Gastromancy

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sat Oct 19, 2013 11:09 pm

• gastromancy •

Pronunciation: gæs-trê-'mæn-see • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, mass (no plural)

Meaning: 1. Telling someone's fortune from the noises of the stomach interpreted as words (a giant leap forward from the use of entrails for the same purpose). 2. Fortune-telling using a clear pot-bellied glass bowl filled with water placed in front of candles (a forerunner of crystal-ball gazing).

Notes: Image Did you ever wonder what people did before television? Today's word is the name of a popular 17th century after-dinner pastime that declined in the 18th century with the introduction of antacids and the discovery that practitioners of gastromancy were using ventriloquism (gastriloquism?) to deceive their audiences. (Some have suggested that the US Office of Management and Budget still uses it for predicting US budgetary needs.) The adjective and personal noun is gastromantic [gæs-trê-mæn-tik].

In Play: Are you getting tired of watching TV after dinner? Then just stay at the table and introduce gastromancy with an off-hand comment like: "I just adored the cabbage, black beans, and sausage, Frederica. Now, let's see what we can predict about tomorrow's market through gastromancy." If you don't want to play, you at least have a more sophisticated term for stomach-rumblings, "After a few beers your stomach is a gastromantic chorale, George. I predict you are in for a long night of heart-burn and indigestion." Finally, we could use it rather like "Gesundheit" after a sneeze: "Gastromancy!" after a gurgle, could mean "Happy digestion!"

Word History: This Good Word is the English version of Greek gastromanteia "divination by the belly" made up of gaster "pot-belly" + mant-eia "power of divination." Gaster may be related to English graze and that which is grazed upon, grass, though the connection is shaky. Manteia, however, is related to Latin mens, mentis "mind, soul, feelings", found in English mental and the suffix -ment. Sanskrit mantar "thinker" and Russian mudryi (from *mond-riji) "wise" are also relatives. For more fortune-telling words, visit Fortune Telling on this website.
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MTC
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Re: Gastromancy

Postby MTC » Sun Oct 20, 2013 10:59 am

I suppose "gastromancy" is easier to manage than "borborygmancy" which would be more precise, if it existed as a word in the dictionary:

bor·bo·ryg·mus
ˌbôrbəˈrigməs/
nountechnical
1.
a rumbling or gurgling noise made by the movement of fluid and gas in the intestines.

LukeJavan8
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Re: Gastromancy

Postby LukeJavan8 » Sun Oct 20, 2013 12:24 pm

Reading Doc's info, I wonder if the word+grass
is why dogs eat grass.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

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Slava
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Re: Gastromancy

Postby Slava » Sun Oct 20, 2013 3:23 pm

Way back in '05, the Doc treated boborygm. Here is the link.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

MTC
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Re: Gastromancy

Postby MTC » Sun Oct 20, 2013 9:03 pm

To the fridge, chum!
Be a pig, yum!
Borborygm.

Apocrypha of MTC
(Urp.)

LukeJavan8
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Re: Gastromancy

Postby LukeJavan8 » Mon Oct 21, 2013 1:37 pm

:)
-----please, draw me a sheep-----


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