English

Noun

averruncation ‎(plural averruncations)

1. (archaic, rare) (The act of) warding off, averting (something evil).
   • 1649, Iohn Robinson, Miscellaneous Propositions and Quæres, R. Royston, ch. 10, page 29:

     Quest[ion]. Whether averruncation of Epidemicall diseases , by Telesmes, be feisable and lawfull ? Answ[er]. [etc.]

   • 1662, Thomas Stanley, The History of the Chaldaick Philosophy, Thomas Dring, page 52:

     BY Theugick or Telestick Rites they conceived that they could procure a communication with the good Dæmons, and expulsion or averruncation of the bad.

   • 1726, Jonathan Swift in The Correspondence of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Vol. III., G. Bell and Sons (1912), page 349:

     [...] Pliny allows them [sc. mice] to have been always an ill omen, and therefore you should be advised to prepare against it either by averruncation or traps.

   • 1827, “Catholicism in Silesia”. (review), The Foreign Quarterly Review, Nº II., Art. XI., page 545 (footnote):

     There are, we presume, different forms in different rituals; for in another that we heve seen, the bishop, while anointing and crossing the bell, prays God will send his Holy Spirit, that the bell may become sanctified for the repelling of all the power, snares, and illusions of the devil, for the souls of the dead, and especially for the averruncation of storms, thunder, and tempests!

   • 2009, David R. Slavitt tr. Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso: A New Verse Translation, Harvard University Press (ISBN 9780674053519), Canto XXIX.38., page 589:

     [...] I believe / many failed in their averruncation / of Rodomonte's assaults and they would achieve / nothing more than the early termination / of lives they could have enjoyed or put to use.

     Molti fra pochi dì vi capitaro: / Alcuni la via dritta vi condusse, / Ch’a quei che verso Italia o Spagna andaro / Altra non era che più trita fusse; / Altri l’ardire, e, più che vita caro, / L’onore, a farvi di sé prova indusse. / E tutti, ove acquistar credean la palma, / Lasciavan l’arme, e molti insieme l’alma.

2. Eradication.