ha·rus·pex

(hə-rŭs′pĕks′, hăr′ə-spĕks′) also a·rus·pex (ə-rŭs′pĕks′)

n. pl. ha·rus·pi·ces (hə-rŭs′pĭ-sēz′) also a·rus·pi·ces (ə-rŭs′pĭ-sēz′)

A priest in ancient Rome who practiced divination by the inspection of the entrails of animals.

[Latin; see gherə- in Indo-European roots.]

ha·rus′pi·cate′ (-pĭ-kāt′) v.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

haruspex

(həˈrʌspɛks)

n, pl haruspices (həˈrʌspɪˌsiːz)

(Historical Terms) (in ancient Rome) a priest who practised divination, esp by examining the entrails of animals

[C16: from Latin, probably from hīra gut + specere to look]

haruspical adj

haruspicy n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ha•rus•pex

(həˈrʌs pɛks, ˈhær əˌspɛks)

n., pl. ha•rus•pi•ces (həˈrʌs pəˌsiz)

one of a class of ancient Roman diviners who based their predictions on the interpretation of animal entrails, natural prodigies, and unusual meteorological phenomena.

[1575–85; < Latin, =haru-, akin to hīra intestine, Greek chordḗ gut (see chord¹) + spec(ere) to look at]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

haruspex

also aruspex
noun

A person who foretells future events by or as if by supernatural means:

augur, auspex, diviner, foreteller, prophesier, prophet, prophetess, seer, sibyl, soothsayer, vaticinator.

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

Meanwhile, this sort of predictions nonsense has been going on since ancient Rome, where a man known as a Haruspex would be in charge of telling the future.

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An important official within the Roman religion was the haruspex, who, after the sacrifice of an animal, examined the entrails of the dead creature to determine the will of the gods, according to the shape and condition of certain internal organs.

Early church grew despite persecution: that truth wins out in the end is evidenced by the expansion of the early church in Roman territory, even as emperors had Christians hunted down, tortured, and killed

N the 1970s, a fortune teller calling herself Lady Haruspex opened for business in a room above a shop on West Derby Road.

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For the Holy See Pavilion at the Venice Biennale she presented Haruspex, a site specific installation responding to the Biblical text 'In the beginning ...

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