mantic

See also: -mantic

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• enPR: mănʹtĭk:
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmæntɪk/
    • Rhymes: -æntɪk
  • (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmantɪk/

Adjective

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

• manticism

Noun

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 […]