I’m reminded of the amusing sidebar in the RPG Unknown Armies, which uses the -mancy suffix for all of its magical schools.
Technically, the various schools of magick—Dipsomancy, Pornomancy, etc. - should actually be written out as Dipsomagy, Pornomagy, and so forth. The suffix “-mancy” refers to magickal divination, whereas “-magy” means more general forms of magick. Even more technically, a more etymologically correct suffic would be—”urgy”, giving us Dipsourgy, Pornourgy, etc. Regardless, “-mancy” is what passed into common currency among the new wave of adepts, and the occult underground is stuck with it—the way normal folks are stuck with people who use “orientated” when they should use “oriented”, or who use “literally” when they shouldn’t use anything at all. Old-school occultists and scholars tend to make a point of using either “-magy” or “-urgy”, which makes novice adepts look at them funny. Life goes on.
(And yes, Pornomancy is pretty much what it sounds like. For maximum weirdness, see also pages 14-15 of this preview PDF. Unknown Armies is awesome.)
I’m reminded of the amusing sidebar in the RPG Unknown Armies, which uses the -mancy suffix for all of its magical schools.
(And yes, Pornomancy is pretty much what it sounds like. For maximum weirdness, see also pages 14-15 of this preview PDF. Unknown Armies is awesome.)
I’m saddened by their use of “should,” or maybe “technically.”
Etymology is not meaning. In modern English, “mancy” means magic, Greek root be damned.