palmistry
(ˈpælm-, ˈpɑːmɪstrɪ)
Forms: 5 pawmestry, 6–7 palmestrie, palmistrie, (6 paulmistrie, palmastry, palmesy, pampestrie, -y, 6–8 palmestry), 6– palmistry.
[ME. f. paume, palme, palm (of the hand) + an element (orig. -estrie, -estry) of obscure origin, which has been gradually changed to -istry, so that the word now appears like a derivative of the 19th c. palmist.]
1. Divination by inspection of the palm of the hand; the art or practice of telling persons' characters and fortunes by examination of the lines and configurations of the palm; chiromancy.
| c 1420 Lydg. Assembly of Gods 870 Adryomancy, Ornomancy, with Pyromancy, Fysenamy also, and Pawmestry. a 1425 Gower's Conf. III. 134 Gebuz and Alpetragus eke Of Planisperie [v.r. palmestrie]..The bokes made. 1530–1 Act 22 Hen. VIII, c. 12 Some of them feynynge them selfes to haue knowlage in physike, phisnamie, palmestrie or other craftie sciences. 1538 Elyot Dict., Chiromantia, palmestry. 1546 Langley Pol. Verg. De Invent. i. xviii. 34 b, Chiromantie..called commonly Palmistry. 1562 Lanc. Wills i. (1857) 183 On litle boke of palmesy. 1567 Harman Caveat (Shaks. Soc.) 23 Egiptians..practising paulmistrie to such as would know their fortunes. 1575 Mirr. Mag., Bladud 46 b, For fooles..And such as practise pampestry. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 310 They professe palmistry and fortune-telling. a 1658 Cleveland Gen. Poems (1677) 2 He tipples Palmestry, and dines On all her Fortune-telling Lines. c 1704 Prior Henry & Emma 133 A frantic gipsy..With the fond maids in palmistry he deals. 1832 De Quincey Charlemagne Wks. XIII. 160 note, It is in fact upon this infinite variety in the superficial lines of the human palm, that palmistry is grounded. |
| attrib. 1899 Daily News 21 July 5/1 There were raffles, a palmistry tent, and a café chantant. 1900 Pinero Gay Ld. Quex ii. 87 The palmistry profession is a flourishing one. |
b. fig. (
nonce-uses.)
| 1841 De Quincey Rhetoric Wks. 1860 XI. 407 The impossibility of finding any two leaves of a tree that should be mere duplicates of each other, in what we might call the palmistry of their natural marking. 1877 Stubbs Lect. Med. & Mod. Hist. (1886) 76 A science of historical palmistry..that attempts to refer..every manuscript to its own country, district, age, school, and even individual writers. |
2. Applied allusively to the use of the hands in applause (
quot. 1698), or in pocket-picking (
quot. 1711), or to bribery (
quot. 1828:
cf. palm n.2 1 b,
palm v. 5); also used erroneously as
= sleight of hand (
cf. palm v. 2).
| 1698 Farquhar Love & Bottle iv. ii, If you would tell a poet his fortune, you must gather it from the palmistry of the audience. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 130 ¶3 He found his Pocket was picked: That being a Kind of Palmistry at which this Race of Vermin [Gipsies] are very dextrous. 1828 Burton's Diary III. 535 note, If he would only, by an allowed and well-understood palmistry, conciliate ‘a king of heralds’, that prime officer in the court of honour..would presently discover among ‘old registers’, arms..belonging to the applicant's remote ‘ancestors’. 1859 Wraxall tr. R. Houdin iii. 26, I..devoted myself to the manipulation of cards and palmistry. Ibid. xii. 175, I had recourse to palmistry to influence his decision. |