necromancy

  • 1Necromancy — • A special mode of divination by the summoning of the dead Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Necromancy     Necromancy     † …

    Catholic encyclopedia

  • 2Necromancy — Nec ro*man cy, n. [OE. nigromaunce, nigromancie, OF. nigromance, F. n[ e]cromance, n[ e]cromancie, from L. necromantia, Gr. ?; nekro s a dead body (akin to L. necare to kill, Skr. na[,c] to perish, vanish) + ? divination, fr. ? diviner, seer,… …

    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • 3necromancy — (n.) c.1300, nygromauncy, divination by communication with the dead, from O.Fr. nigromancie magic, necromancy, witchcraft, sorcery, from M.L. nigromantia (13c.), from L. necromantia divination from an exhumed corpse, from Gk. nekromanteia, from… …

    Etymology dictionary

  • 4necromancy — [n] sorcery abracadabra*, alchemy, bewitchment, black art, black magic, charm, conjuring, devilry, divination, enchantment, evil eye, hocus pocus*, incantation, jinx, magic, mumbo jumbo*, mysticism, occultism, spell, thaumaturgy, voodoo,… …

    New thesaurus

  • 5necromancy — ► NOUN 1) prediction of the future by allegedly communicating with the dead. 2) witchcraft or black magic. DERIVATIVES necromancer noun necromantic adjective. ORIGIN from Greek nekros corpse …

    English terms dictionary

  • 6necromancy — [nek′rə man΄sē] n. [ME nigromancie < OFr nigromance < ML nigromantia (altered by assoc. with L niger, black) < L necromantia < Gr nekromanteia < nekros, corpse (see NECRO ) + manteia, divination: see MANCY] 1. in some occult and… …

    English World dictionary

  • 7Necromancy — This article is about the form of magic. For the film, see Necromancy (film). Necromancer redirects here. For other uses, see Necromancer (disambiguation). Illustration portraying a scene from the Bible wherein the Witch of Endor uses a… …

    Wikipedia

  • 8necromancy — necromancer, n. necromantic; Obs., necromantical, adj. necromantically, adv. /nek reuh man see/, n. 1. a method of divination through alleged communication with the dead; black art. 2. magic in general, esp. that practiced by a witch or sorcerer; …

    Universalium

  • 9necromancy — noun /ˈnɛkrəˌmænsi/ a) Divination involving the dead or death. And for to make this treatise the more pleasaunt and facill, I have put it in forme of a Dialogue, which I have diuided into three bookes: The first speaking of Magie in general, and… …

    Wiktionary

  • 10necromancy — [13] Greek nekrós meant ‘corpse’ (it has given English necrophilia [19], necropolis ‘cemetery’ [19], and necrosis ‘death of tissue’ [17] as well as necromancy, and goes back to a base *nek ‘kill’ which also produced Latin nex ‘killing’, source of …

    The Hutchinson dictionary of word origins