haruspex

See also: Haruspex

English

Alternative forms

• aruspex, haruspice

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin haruspex.

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

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *haruspeks, from earlier *xaruspeks (to differentiate it from a later form *haruspeks if the shift */x/ > */h/ in the Italic languages already happened during late Proto-Italic), equivalent to haru- (“intestines”) +‎ *spex. 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 *ǵʰer- (“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): /haˈrus.peks/, [häˈrʊs̠pɛks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /aˈrus.peks/, [äˈruspeks]

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.

Case	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 anim

1. haruspex

Declension

Declension of haruspex

	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, 2024