haruspex
noun/həˈrʌspɛks/
Etymology Borrowed from Latin haruspex.
1
A soothsayer or priest in Ancient Rome (originally Etruscan) who practiced haruspicy, divination by inspecting entrails.
- If it be lawfull for Panæcius to maintaine his judgement about Aruspices, Dreames, Oracles and Prophecies[…]: Wherfore shall not a wise-man dare that in all things, which this man dareth in such as he hath learned of his Masters?1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
- All of this is nonsense, but so are all attempts to look at a few successes and a few failures and make fatuous generalizations based on coincidence. Etruscan and Roman haruspices did the same thing with the entrails of chickens.2013, Angus Deaton, The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality: