(vbl.) sb. Also 6 soythsayenge, 6–8 southsaying. [f. SOOTH sb. or a. + SAYING (vbl.) sb.1]

1

  1.  The practice of foretelling the future or the course of future events; prediction, prognostication.

2

1535.  Coverdale, Ecclus. xxxiv. 5. Soythsayenge, witchcraft, sorcery, and dreaminge is but vanyte.

3

a. 1591.  H. Smith, Wks. (1867), II. 412. He used soothsaying and divination.

4

1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit., 652. Wonderfull skilfull in Sooth-saying by the Inspection of Beasts inwards.

5

1652–62.  Heylin, Cosmogr., III. (1682), 21. Famous for Southsaying, and accounted the first Interpreters of dreams.

6

1727.  De Foe, Syst. Magic, I. iii. (1840), 61. If the wise men … did not daily produce some new discoveries, it was evident the price and rate of southsaying would come down to nothing.

7

1850.  Maurice, Mor. & Met. Philos. (ed. 2), 8. They practise magic and soothsaying: they are the advisers of the king.

8

1906.  J. Orr, Problem of O. T., xii. 454. Such a view puts prophecy on a level with ‘soothsaying.’

9

  2.  An instance of this; a prediction or prophecy.

10

1535.  Coverdale, Micah v. 12. All witchcraftes will I rote out of thyne hande, there shall no mo soythsayenges be within the.

11

1585.  T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., IV. xix. 134. The art magick, and all other sorts of southsayings.

12

1629.  Gaule, Holy Madnesse, 120. But at length [he] is content to yeeld to others Sooth-sayings, before the Testimony of his owne Conscience.

13

1653.  Holcroft, Procopius, Pers. War, I. 30. Hearkning to impious South-sayings, vainly foretelling to him the Imperiall dignity.

14

1864.  Swinburne, Atalanta, 2009. Also for visions that were, And soothsayings spoken in sleep.

15

  So Soothsaying ppl. a., that acts the part of soothsayer; of the nature of, or characterized by, soothsaying. Now rare.

16

1550.  W. Lynne, Carion’s Cron., 24. Sibylla … signifieth … a prophetisse or southsayenge woman.

17

1634.  Milton, Comus, 874. By scaly Tritons winding shell, And old sooth-saying Glaucus spell.

18

1652.  Gaule, Magastrom., 280. It was a soothsaying divination that provoked to doe the deed.

19

1727.  De Foe, Syst. Magic, I. iv. (1840), 114. How much were it to be wished, that some of our southsaying wits, who are neither wise men or southsayers [etc.].

20

1911.  W. W. Fowler, Relig. Exper. Roman People, xiii. 296. We hear little of State-authorised divination, and a great deal of wandering soothsayers, soothsaying families, and oracles which (except at Delphi) were not under the direct control of a City-state.

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