Speal-bone
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The shoulder blade. Scotland, obsolete
"In heteroscopic divination the process is rather one of inference from external facts. The methods are very various. […] In haruspication, or the inspection of entrails, in scapulomancy or divination by the speal-bone or shoulder-blade, in divination by footprints in ashes, found in Australia, Peru and Scotland, the voluntary element is prominent, for the diviner must take active steps to secure the conditions necessary to divination."
Example
More examples"In heteroscopic divination the process is rather one of inference from external facts. The methods are very various. […] In haruspication, or the inspection of entrails, in scapulomancy or divination by the speal-bone or shoulder-blade, in divination by footprints in ashes, found in Australia, Peru and Scotland, the voluntary element is prominent, for the diviner must take active steps to secure the conditions necessary to divination."
Etymology
A variant of spule (“shoulder”) + bane (“bone”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.