necromancy

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈnɛkɹəˌmænsi/^[1]

Etymology

An alteration of inherited from Middle English nigromancie,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} borrowed from Old French nigromancie,^[2][5][6][1] from Medieval Latin nigromantia,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Late Latin necromantia (“divination from an exhumed corpse”),^[2][3][5][6] from Ancient Greek νεκρομαντεία (nekromanteía),^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} from nekrós “dead body” + manteía “divination”.^[2][5][6][1] Nekrós comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *nek- “death”;^[2][6] manteía is from mántis “prophet”.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Sorcery, witchcraft, black magic, spelled nygromauncy or nigromauncie, around 1300;^[6][5][7] properly, divination by communicating with the dead.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

In Medieval Latin the first part of the word was reshaped as if from Latin niger “black”,^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} since necromancy was the black art.^[5][1] The modern spelling, with necro-, is a mid-16th-century correction back to the Late Latin form.^[5][6][1] The word still means both calling up the dead and magic in general.^[2][3][4]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – nygromauncy, “black magic”.^[6][5][7]
• 1522 – date given by Merriam-Webster for necromancy.^[3]
• 1550 – the corrected spelling, according to Barnhart.^[5]
• 1601 – the part of the Odyssey where Ulysses visits the dead.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The supposed practice of calling up the spirits of the dead to foretell the future or influence events.
2. Black magic; sorcery.

Word family

• necromancer
• necromantic
• necromantically

Related words

• necro-
• -mancy
• mantis
• nigromancy
• necrosis

References

1. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
5. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
6. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. [1] [2] [3] [4] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press