Chiromancers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals who practice the art of palmistry, interpreting lines and features of hands to foretell the future or analyze character traits
2. Practitioners of the ancient technique of hand reading, where the palm's configurations are believed to reveal insights about a person's life and destiny
3. Experts in reading palms, aiming to derive meaning from hand shapes and lines which are thought to indicate personal attributes and potential events

Etymology: Palm reading is far older than its name. "Chiromancy" comes from Greek "kheiromanteia," built from "kheir" (hand) and "manteia" (divination), so a chiromancer is literally someone who divines by the hand. The Greek noun "manteia" also sits behind words like "necromancy" and "geomancy," which share the same suffix pattern of a sort of prophecy paired with a specific source. The English form "chiromancy" is a learned coinage made from those Greek parts, so the sense of "palm reader" was not an ancient Greek professional title. The agent ending "-er" was then attached to the English noun to name the practitioner, which gives "chiromancer" and, with the plural "-s," "chiromancers."

Synonyms: palmists, fortune-tellers, clairvoyants, soothsayers, diviners