What does suffic -mancer mean

[pezwarrior18]

I wasn't sure if this was the right forum, but since a lot of different types of threads I figured I'd ask here. Does anyone know what the suffic -mancer means. For example, Cryomancer (the sub zero character from mortal kombat). thanks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryomancers

[Michael P]

I believe it has a magical connotation, as in "Necromancer," a magician who raises the dead.

[Gaz]

Basically, it means a sorcerer/magic-y person that specialises in whatever the prefix is. Cryo= ice, necro=death, pyro=fire and so on...

[pezwarrior18]

thanks.

*the message you have entered is too short. please lengthen it to at least 10 characters* :rolleyes:

[f. chong rutherford]

I wasn't sure if this was the right forum, but since a lot of different types of threads I figured I'd ask here. Does anyone know what the suffic -mancer means. For example, Cryomancer (the sub zero character from mortal kombat). thanks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryomancers

-mancer, from -mancy, from the latin mantia (or greek manteia), is to divinate from (read: prophecy, or understanding). Bibliomancy, to divinite from the bible. Graptomancy, to divinite from handwriting.

Necromancy, from the latin necros (meaning dead). Thus, to divinate from the dead. In use (from necromantia) described communing with the spirits of the dead in order to gain knowledge.

From necros also comes the romantic niger (as in the French, niger meaning black, or noir). Nigermancie (in French, black magic). Nercomancy later came to mean dark magic, then later again dead magic.

Cryptos, meaning secret. Cryptography, secret writing. Cryptomancy, following the older definition, could thus be divination from secrets. So, a Cryptomancer would be someone who practices divining secrets. Or creating them.

EDIT: Cryos, meaning cold. Cryomancer, one who divinites from cold? Probably just means as above, someone who uses 'cold magic.' However it's used in the game is what it means.

It was likely used because it sounded neat, and made allusions to necromancy (which has evolved via dungeons and dragons and other sword&sorcery games).

[pezwarrior18]

-
It was likely used because it sounded neat, and made allusions to necromancy (which has evolved via dungeons and dragons and other sword&sorcery games).

I figured that probably was it. so basically cryomancer means "cold sorcery" more or less.

[Paul McEnery]

-mancer, from -mancy, from the latin mantia (or greek manteia), is to divinate from (read: prophecy, or understanding). Bibliomancy, to divinite from the bible. Graptomancy, to divinite from handwriting.

Necromancy, from the latin necros (meaning dead). Thus, to divinate from the dead. In use (from necromantia) described communing with the spirits of the dead in order to gain knowledge.

From necros also comes the romantic niger (as in the French, niger meaning black, or noir). Nigermancie (in French, black magic). Nercomancy later came to mean dark magic, then later again dead magic.

Cryptos, meaning secret. Cryptography, secret writing. Cryptomancy, following the older definition, could thus be divination from secrets. So, a Cryptomancer would be someone who practices divining secrets. Or creating them.

EDIT: Cryos, meaning cold. Cryomancer, one who divinites from cold? Probably just means as above, someone who uses 'cold magic.' However it's used in the game is what it means.

It was likely used because it sounded neat, and made allusions to necromancy (which has evolved via dungeons and dragons and other sword&sorcery games).

Technical niggle:

Bibiomancy = to divine from books. Any book.

[Magneto_X]

Pyromancer/cy = fire magic wielder

[JeffreyWKramer]

Pyromancer/cy = fire magic wielder

As F. Chong noted earlier, technically "-mancy" referred to divination, or "reading from" a source. As such, necromancy used to refer to those who speak with the dead (spirit mediums and such), and pyromancy would have referred to those who tried to divine the future from reading the patterns in flame. This was a traditional method of diviniation, btw, often combined with hallucinogenic drugs (which no doubt would help one think there was some sense to be derived from the flickering of flames). Traditionally, pyromancy had nothing to do with wielding fire magics except to try to read the future. The image of the fire-flinging wizard is a product of fantasy fiction, not classical magical concepts. Traditionally, sorcery was supposedly more likely to take the form of weather control or blighting crops than flinging about fireballs.

But, since necromancy - in the sense of speaking with the dead - was identified as verboten in the Bible, the term later came to be associated with the dark arts, and with sorcery in general, as Fred again noted. Suddenly, people who had congress with demons, cast hexes, etc. were all being called necromancers, and necromancers were being called sorcerers. Later, fantasy writers and RPGs took to naming different types of fantasy magic with the "-mancy" suffix. Thus pyromancy, cryomancy, etc.

[Solaris]

Bibliomancers would often pick up a book---pretty much any book, though some *did* use the bible---ask a question, and then open it to a random page and read what was there, and attempt to apply what they read back to the question they asked.

And yes, you could do it with any book... though doing it with something like "The Very Quiet Cricket" might take an awful lot of inspiration to apply it back to something like "How will my finances do in the stock market for the next year?" :D

Seriously, for those who practice it, it's often a more general question applied, not the humorous one above. TBH, in many ways it's like a book version of the Magic Eight Ball: sometimes it provokes an interesting train of thought, but really, most of the time it comes up sheer nonsense.

[f. chong rutherford]

Technical niggle:

Bibiomancy = to divine from books. Any book.

But typically used in reference to the Bible. Usually divinition from any book was refered to as stichiomancy (stichio, from stitch, a line of verse, from Greek stikhos, meaning line).

[Rachel Grey]

Darn. Chong allready leyed it all out.

Funny/interesting note the BESM rulebook adds Nekomancy to it's ideas for play concepts in the magic skill. Weird huh? ;)

[Iangould]

Let's not forget my favorite -mancy.

Chiromancy - the art of divining the future using cheese.

[tangentman]

Bibliomancers would often pick up a book---pretty much any book, though some *did* use the bible---ask a question, and then open it to a random page and read what was there, and attempt to apply what they read back to the question they asked.

And yes, you could do it with any book... though doing it with something like "The Very Quiet Cricket" might take an awful lot of inspiration to apply it back to something like "How will my finances do in the stock market for the next year?" :D

Seriously, for those who practice it, it's often a more general question applied, not the humorous one above. TBH, in many ways it's like a book version of the Magic Eight Ball: sometimes it provokes an interesting train of thought, but really, most of the time it comes up sheer nonsense.

Margaret Atwood showed bibliomancy at work in her novel, The Robber Bride, in the way you described! A character named Charis learned the method from her grandmother, and modified it by using a crystal in adulthood. She would ask a question and open a random page of the Bible to find her "answer".

[Spackling Compound]

Don't be so "fancysch-mancy"....