hemerology
English edit
Etymology edit
From Ancient Greek ἡμέρᾱ (hēmérā, “day; date”) (a variant of ἦμαρ (êmar, “day”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₃- (“be hot, burn”)) + -ology (from Ancient Greek -λογῐ́ᾱ (-logíā, “suffix indicating the study of something, or a branch of knowledge”), from λόγος (lógos, “word; explanation; subject matter”) (from λέγω (légō, “to arrange, put in order”), from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather”)) + -ίᾱ (-íā, “suffix forming a feminine abstract noun”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh₂ (“suffix forming a collectve noun”))).
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /hɛməˈɹɒləd͡ʒi/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /hɛməˈɹɑləd͡ʒi/
- Hyphenation: he‧mer‧o‧lo‧gy
Noun edit
hemerology (countable and uncountable, plural hemerologies)
- The study of calendars, especially with a view to identifying propitious days.
- [1658, Edward Phillips, compiler, “Hemerology”, in The New World of English Words: Or, A General Dictionary: […], London: […] E. Tyler, for Nath[aniel] Brook […], →OCLC:
- Hemerology, (Greek) a Calender, or Book, wherein are regiſtred the paſſages of every day.]
- 1870 April 1, “The Gospels Consolidated; with a copious Index. S. Bagster and Sons. 1869. [book review]”, in Henry Allon, Henry Robert Reynolds, editors, The British Quarterly Review, volume LI, number CII, London: Hodder and Stoughton, Paternoster Row, →OCLC, page 538:
- It is not necessary to an intelligent comprehension of the Gospels, as they have been handed down to us, that they should possess an exact hemerology.
- 1998, Sergio Ribichini, Magic in the Ancient Near East (Studi epigrafici e linguistici sul Vicino Oriente antico; 15), Verona: Essedue edizioni, →ISBN, page 60:
- For these reasons perhaps unsurprisingly the Babylonian Almanach was the most popular hemerology, enjoying a widespread currency from around the middle of the second millennium BC down well into Late Babylonian times.
- 2008, Johannes Thomann, “Square Horoscope Diagrams in Middle Eastern Astrology and Chinese Cosmological Diagrams: Were these Designs Transmitted through the Silk Road?”, in Philippe Forêt, Andreas Kaplony, editors, The Journey of Maps and Images on the Silk Road (Brill's Inner Asian Library; 21), Leiden, Boston, Mass.: Brill, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 111:
- In our context, the chapter on hemerology (including astrology) is of primary interest. Hemerology, the method for determining favorable and unfavorable days, has a long history in ancient China.
- 2017, Enrique Jiménez, “The Place of Disputation Poems within Babylonian Literature”, in The Babylonian Disputation Poems: With Editions of the Series of the Poplar, Palm and Vine, the Series of the Spides, and the Story of the Poor, Forlorn Wren (Culture and History of the Ancient Near East; 87), Leiden: E. J. Brill, →ISBN, page 103:
- The final section of the text […] contains a mock hemerology, in which the dietary prescriptions typical of hemerologies are ridiculed with coarse humor: thus, the dish recommended for the month of Šabāṭu is cedar wood filled with "donkey's buttock, dog's excrement, and bluebotle's excrement." In this case the text clearly parodies hemerologies, one of the most popular genres throughout cuneiform culture.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
study of calendars
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