Cromniomancy
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Divination by onions or onion sprouts. uncountable
"1660, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy in Brand Popular Antiquities (1844) iii. Burton […] speaks of "cromnysmantia," a kind of divination with onions laid on the altar at Christmas Eve, practised by girls, to know when they shall be married, and how many husbands they shall have. This appears also to have been a German custom."
Example
More examples"1660, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy in Brand Popular Antiquities (1844) iii. Burton […] speaks of "cromnysmantia," a kind of divination with onions laid on the altar at Christmas Eve, practised by girls, to know when they shall be married, and how many husbands they shall have. This appears also to have been a German custom."
Etymology
From Ancient Greek κρόμμῠον (krómmŭon, “onion”) + -mancy.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.