haruspex

See also: Haruspex

English

Alternative forms

• aruspex, haruspice

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin haruspex.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /həˈrʌspɛks/

Noun

haruspex (plural haruspices)

1. A soothsayer or priest in Ancient Rome (originally Etruscan) who practiced haruspicy, divination by inspecting entrails.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     If it be lawfull for Panæcius to maintaine his judgement about Aruspices, Dreames, Oracles and Prophecies […]: Wherfore shall not a wise-man dare that in all things, which this man dareth in such as he hath learned of his Masters?

   • 2013, Angus Deaton, The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality:

     All of this is nonsense, but so are all attempts to look at a few successes and a few failures and make fatuous generalizations based on coincidence. Etruscan and Roman haruspices did the same thing with the entrails of chickens.

Translations

one who practices divination by inspecting entrails

• Asturian: harúspiz (ast)
• Faliscan: harispex (harispex)
• Finnish: haruspeksi (fi)
• French: haruspice (fr) m
• Italian: aruspicina (it) f
• Latin: haruspex (la) m, extispex m
• Portuguese: arúspice (pt) m or f
• Slovak: haruspex m

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *haru-speks, from *speks. The first component is related to hīra; the second is from the root of speciō (“to observe, watch”). Compare Faliscan 𐌇𐌀𐌓𐌉𐌔𐌐(𐌄𐌗) (harisp(ex)). According to Nocentini the first part stems from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰerH- (“intestine”) (thus *ǵʰr̥H-u- > *xaru-), whence also Latin hariolus, hernia (“hernia”).

Cognate to Ancient Greek χορδή (khordḗ), Proto-Germanic *garnō (“intestines”) (whence German Garn) and to Lithuanian žarnà (“intestine”). The component -spex can also be found in the word auspex.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [haˈrʊs.pɛks]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [aˈrus.peks]

Noun

haruspex m (genitive haruspicis); third declension

1. diviner who reads from the intestines of sacrificial animals; one who practices haruspicy.

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	haruspex	haruspicēs
genitive	haruspicis	haruspicum
dative	haruspicī	haruspicibus
accusative	haruspicem	haruspicēs
ablative	haruspice	haruspicibus
vocative	haruspex	haruspicēs

Coordinate terms

• augur, auspex

Derived terms

• haruspica
• haruspicālis
• haruspicīnus
• haruspicium

Descendants

• → Catalan: harúspex
• → English: haruspex
• → Finnish: haruspeksi
• → German: Haruspex
• → Italian: aruspice
• → Portuguese: arúspice
• → Sicilian: arùspici
• → Spanish: arúspice

References

• “haruspex”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “haruspex”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• haruspex in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “haruspex”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Slovak

Etymology

Derived from Latin haruspex.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈɦaruspeks]

Noun

haruspex m pers

1. haruspex

Declension

Declension of haruspex
(pattern chlap)

	singular	plural
nominative	haruspex	haruspikovia
genitive	haruspika	haruspikov
dative	haruspikovi	haruspikom
accusative	haruspika	haruspikov
locative	haruspikovi	haruspikoch
instrumental	haruspikom	haruspikmi

Further reading

• “haruspex”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025