Esoteric

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Esoteric \Es`o*ter"ic\ ([e^]s`[-o]*t[e^]"[i^]k), a. [Gr.
     'eswteriko`s, fr. 'esw`teros inner, interior, comp. fr. 'e`sw
     in, within, fr. 'es, e'is, into, fr. 'en in. See {In}.]
     1. Designed for, and understood by, the specially initiated
        alone; not communicated, or not intelligible, to the
        general body of followers; private; interior; acroamatic;


        -- said of discussions of technical topics and of the
        private and more recondite instructions and doctrines of
        philosophers. Opposed to {exoteric}.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Enough if every age produce two or three critics of
              this esoteric class, with here and there a reader to
              understand them.                      --De Quincey.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Marked by secrecy or privacy; private; select;
        confidential; as, an esoteric purpose; an esoteric
        meeting.
        [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Esoteric \Es`o*ter"ic\, n. (Philos.)
        (a) An esoteric doctrine or treatise; esoteric philosophy;
            esoterics.
        (b) One who believes, or is an initiate, in esoteric
            doctrines or rites.
            [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  esoteric
       adj : confined to and understandable by only an enlightened inner
             circle; "a compilation of esoteric philosophical
             theories" [ant: {exoteric}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  155 Moby Thesaurus words for "esoteric":
     absolute, abstract, abstruse, anagogic, arcane, auricular,
     between the lines, between us, cabalic, cabalistic, censored,
     certain, classified, close, closed, concealed, concrete,
     confidential, covert, cryptic, dark, deep, deep-seated, defined,
     definite, delitescent, detailed, determinate, different, distinct,
     distinguished, dormant, eerie, enigmatic, especial, exceptional,
     express, extramundane, extraordinary, extraterrestrial, fey, fixed,
     heavy, hermetic, hibernating, hidden, hush-hush, hypernormal,
     hyperphysical, immanent, implanted, implicit, in petto,
     inalienable, individual, indwelling, infixed, ingrained, inherent,
     inner, inside, internal, intimate, intrinsic, inward, inwrought,
     irreducible, latent, lurking, metaphysic, minute, muffled,
     mysterious, mystic, not for publication, noteworthy, numinous,
     obfuscated, obscured, occult, off the record, otherworldly,
     particular, personal, possible, potential, precise, preterhuman,
     preternatural, preternormal, pretersensual, private, privileged,
     profound, psychic, recondite, resident, respective, restricted,
     sealed, secret, several, singular, sleeping, smothered,
     solipsistic, special, specific, spiritual, stifled, subjective,
     submerged, superhuman, supernatural, supernormal, superphysical,
     supersensible, supersensual, suppressed, supramundane,
     supranatural, theosophical, theosophist, top secret,
     transcendental, transmundane, ulterior, unalienable, unbreatheable,
     unchallengeable, under privilege, under security,
     under the surface, under wraps, underlying, undisclosable,
     undisclosed, undivulgable, undivulged, unearthly, unhuman,
     unmanifested, unpublishable, unquestionable, unrevealable,
     unrevealed, unspoken, untellable, untold, unutterable, unuttered,
     unwhisperable, unworldly, veiled, virtual
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  ESOTERIC, adj.  Very particularly abstruse and consummately occult. 
  The ancient philosophies were of two kinds, -- _exoteric_, those that
  the philosophers themselves could partly understand, and _esoteric_,
  those that nobody could understand.  It is the latter that have most
  profoundly affected modern thought and found greatest acceptance in
  our time.