The word first appears in English in the mid-17th century (used in
Thomas Browne's
Pseudodoxia Epidemica, 1646), where it is an adaptation of
Late Latin rhabdomantia, from a presumed (unrecorded) ancient Greek
*rhabdomanteia, from the ancient Greek ῥάβδος (
rhabdos) a rod.
Liddell & Scott are "dubious" about the word's existence in Classical Greek, though the word is well attested in
Patristic Greek. Note that none of the divinatory practices denoted by
rhabdomancy in English are documented from ancient Greek sources. ==References==