capnomancy means divination by interpreting smoke rising from a fire. A form of pyromancy. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why this word is great
CAPNOMANCY — [Noun] The practice of divination by interpreting the shape, movement, and color of smoke rising from a fire. From the Ancient Greek καπνός (kapnós, "smoke") and -μαντεία (-manteía, "divination"). Unlike pyromancy, which reads meaning in the flames themselves, or augury, which seeks signs from the flight of birds, capnomancy is the specific art of reading the sky's transient scripture. It is the slow, spiraling ascent of incense in a silent chapel; the thick, columnar plume from a midsummer bonfire; or the sudden, frantic shift of a campfire's ghost as the wind turns—a discipline built on watching what is meant to vanish, seeking pattern in the very emblem of impermanence.
noun
- Divination by interpreting smoke rising from a fire. A form of pyromancy.“1610, Vives in J. Healey Saint Augustine of the Citie of God
Diuination generally was done by diuers means...by smoake, Capnomancy.”