mantic

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See also: -mantic

English

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Ancient Greek μαντικός (mantikós), from μάντις (mántis, seer, soothsayer), from μαίνομαι (maínomai, I am mad, raving).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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mantic (comparative more mantic, superlative most mantic)

  1. Relating to divination; prophetic.
    • 1921, Sir William Osler, The Evolution of Modern Medicine:
      [H]e casts his horoscope secundum artem, then, taking a branch of tamarisk, a favorite tree from which to get the divining rod, he names some twenty-nine or thirty mantic arts, from pyromancy to necromancy, by which he offers to predict his future.

Derived terms

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Noun

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mantic (plural mantics)

  1. A soothsayer, a seer.
    • 1999, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary[1], →OCLC, page 377:
      Surprisingly ignored are Israel’s more momentous earlier prophets or mantic guilds affiliated with Elijah and destined to be transformed into the writing prophets of Judah after 750 []