# Antinipomancy?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antinipomancy/247153>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 26, 2004, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antinipomancy/247153 "2004-05-26T07:58:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sisyphus\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sisyphus\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sisyphus_Stone)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antinipomancy/247153/1 "2004-05-26T07:58:57Z")

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This ‘practice’ was referred to in a novel (_Golden Eyes_ by John Gideon) that I just read. It appears, from context, to be a methodology used, by examining the entrails of animals, or humans (in the book I read the innocent female human was the preferred ‘subject’) in order subvert and rearrange the events of the future.

I’ve googled it, no haps.

I’ve looked it up on my on-line Marriam-Webster, no haps.

I’ve sought meaning for the term in all the reference books I have at home, no haps.

Did the author make this term up or is there really sych a practice?

Is my making meaning from context close?

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**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antinipomancy/247153/2 "2004-05-26T08:17:09Z")

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**Amniomancy** maybe?

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**Author:** ![One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/838e76/32.png) [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antinipomancy/247153/3 "2004-05-26T09:46:43Z")

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[This website](http://skepdic.com/divinati.html) seems to have a good list, but the term you mention isn’t included. In the same sort of area though it does have

> [@](#):
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> anthropomancy (divination by interpreting the organs of newly sacrificed humans)

and

> [@](#):
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> haruspicy (inspecting the entrails of slaughtered animals)

different type of divining, but so weird I had to include it

> [@](#):
>
> cleidomancy (divination by interpreting the movements of a key suspended by a thread from the nail of the third finger on a young virgin’s hand while one of the Psalms was recited)

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**Author:** ![Bibliovore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bibliovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bibliovore)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antinipomancy/247153/4 "2004-05-26T11:02:09Z")

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Haruspicy is the more common name for the practice, and it did happen - the author wasn’t making it up. And a Haruspex is someone who practices haruspicy. (“Gut-gazer” was apparently the slang term)

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**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antinipomancy/247153/5 "2004-05-26T14:33:25Z")

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I’ve heard of divination by examination of entrails by the name splanchomancy. A Yahoo search on that term turned up 115 results.