speal-bone

English

Etymology

A variant of spule (“shoulder”) + bane (“bone”).

Noun

speal-bone (plural speal-bones)

1. (Scotland, obsolete) The shoulder blade.
   • 1911, “Divination”, in Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition, volume 8, New York, N.Y.: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., page 333:

     In heteroscopic divination the process is rather one of inference from external facts. The methods are very various. […] In haruspication, or the inspection of entrails, in scapulomancy or divination by the speal-bone or shoulder-blade, in divination by footprints in ashes, found in Australia, Peru and Scotland, the voluntary element is prominent, for the diviner must take active steps to secure the conditions necessary to divination.

Anagrams

• bean poles, bean-poles, beanpoles