speal-bonen.
Scottish and northern.
The shoulder blade, esp. as used in a method of divination. Pennant is the chief source of later instances.
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the world > life > the body > structural parts > bone or bones > bony support for limbs > shoulder-girdle > [noun] > shoulder bone
shoulder bladea1300
shoulder bladea1300
shoulder-bonec1320
spauld-bonec1400
omoplate?a1425
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scapula1578
shield-bonec1600
spade-bone1612
plate-bonea1665
speal-bone1771
blade-bone1845
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > foresight, foreknowledge > prediction, foretelling > divination by natural phenomena > divination from bones > [noun] > by a shoulder-blade > shoulder-blade so used
speal-bone1771
1771 T. Pennant Tour Scotl. 1769 154 There is another sort of divination, called Sleinanachd, or reading the speal-bone, or the blade-bone of a shoulder of mutton well scraped.
1802 J. Sibbald Chron. Sc. Poetry Gloss. at Spald ‘Reading the speal or spule-bane,’ antiently a common mode of divination.
1871 E. B. Tylor Primitive Culture I. 113 A proper English term for it is ‘reading the speal-bone’.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1913; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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