ALECTRYOM'ANCY, noun [Gr. a cock and divination.] An ancient practice of foretelling events by means of a cock. The twenty four letters were laid on the ground, and a grain of corn on each; a cock was then permitted to pick up the grains, and the letters under the grains selected, being formed into words, were supposed to foretell the event desired.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI