stichomancy means Divination by randomly selecting lines or passages from books. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why this word is great
STICHOMANCY — [Noun] Divination by the random selection of lines or passages from books, particularly verse. From the Greek stichos ("row, line, verse") and manteia ("divination"), via French stichomantie. Unlike "bibliomancy" (which broadly consults any book as an oracle) or "rhapsodomancy" (which restricts itself to a volume of poetry), stichomancy hinges on the sanctity of the discrete line—an austere operation where fate is pinned to a singular row of words. It is the blind finger-stab into a faded paperback, the cracked spine of a psalter falling open to an ominous verse, and the sudden, jarring resonance of a line about betrayal discovered in a cookbook. One consults not the gods, but the typesetter, trusting the arbitrary sequence of all written language as a secret catalog of one's own chaos.
noun
- Divination by randomly selecting lines or passages from books.