Why “nephomancy” is a great word
NEPHOMANCY — [Noun] The practice of divination by observing and interpreting the forms, movements, and colors of clouds. From nepho- (from Ancient Greek νέφος (néphos, "cloud")) + -mancy (from Ancient Greek μαντεία (manteía, "prophecy, divination")). Unlike aeromancy, which interprets a wider theater of atmospheric phenomena, or augury, which seeks purpose in the flight of birds, nephomancy is a singular, patient study of the sky's shifting parchment. It is tracing a ship or a castle in the warm, backlit wool of a sunset cloud, feeling the cool dread in the advancing greenish bruise of a storm front, and watching a single wisp dissolve like a forgotten thought into the blue—a quiet testament to the human hunger to find narrative in the most transient and impersonal of canvases.