haruspex (n.)
1580s, from Latin haruspex (plural haruspices) "soothsayer by means of entrails," first element from PIE root *ghere- "gut, entrail;" second element from Latin spic- "beholding, inspecting," from PIE *speks "he who sees," from root *spek- "to observe." The practice is Etruscan. Related: Haruspical; haruspication.
Entries linking to haruspex
*gherə-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "gut, entrail."
It forms all or part of: Chordata; chordate; chord (n.2) "structure in animals resembling a string;" chorion; cord; cordon; harpsichord; haruspex; hernia; notochord; yarn.
It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit hira "vein; band;" Latin hernia "rupture;" Greek khorde "intestine, gut-string;" Lithuanian žarna "guts, leather bag;" Old English gearn, Old High German garn "yarn" (originally made of dried gut), Old Norse gorn "gut."
Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to observe."
It forms all or part of: aspect; auspex; auspices; auspicious; bishop; circumspect; conspicuous; despicable; despise; episcopal; especial; espionage; espy; expect; frontispiece; gyroscope; haruspex; horoscope; inspect; inspection; inspector; introspect; introspection; perspective; perspicacious; perspicacity; prospect; prospective; respect; respite; retrospect; scope; -scope; scopophilia; -scopy; skeptic; species; specimen; specious; spectacle; spectacular; spectrum; speculate; speculation; speculum; spice; spy; suspect; suspicion; suspicious; telescope.
It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit spasati "sees;" Avestan spasyeiti "spies;" Greek skopein "behold, look, consider," skeptesthai "to look at," skopos "watcher, one who watches;" Latin specere "to look at;" Old High German spehhon "to spy," German spähen "to spy."
[extent] 1530s, "room to act, free play," also literal (1550s), "room to move in, space;" from Italian scopo "aim, purpose, object; thing aimed at, mark, target," from Latin scopus, from Greek skopos "aim, target, object of attention;" also "watcher, one who watches," which according to Watkins is from a metathesized form of PIE *spek-yo-, suffixed form of root *spek- "to observe." Beekes writes that the the old IE root noun (as in Latin haruspex) from *spek- apparently was replaced in Greek by skopos.
It is attested from 1550s as "that which is aimed at or desired," hence "ultimate aim;" the classical sense of "a mark to aim or shoot at" was in English by 1560s but now is obsolete. Hence "object a speaker or writer has in view" (1530s). The sense of "intellectual range, distance the mind can reach" is recorded from c. 1600. By 1590s as "extent in space." By 1830 as "sphere in which some activity operates." Elizabethan scopious "spacious, wide" did not stick.
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updated on November 15, 2017
Dictionary entries near haruspex
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Harvard
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Harvey
has