Definition of Esoteric

Erudition

ESOTERIC adjective

	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.

		definition from: *The Devil's Dictionary* by Ambrose Bierce, 1911

Ethnology

Regular definition:

ESOTERIC:
?es?u?ter?k adj. 1 intelligible only to those with special knowledge. 2 (of a belief etc.) intended only for the initiated. øøesoterical adj. esoterically adv. esotericism n. esotericist n. [Gk esoterikos f. esotero compar. of eso within]

Last updated: 9/3/2011 12:48:30