# esoteric

Pronunciation: US say "es-uh-TER-ik" /ˌɛs.əˈtɛɹ.ɪk/; UK say "ee-soh-TER-ik" /ˌiː.səʊˈtɛɹ.ɪk/; AUS say "ee-suh-TER-ik" /ˌiː.səˈteɹ.ɪk/

## Adjective

1. Intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with specialized knowledge or interests, especially of abstract or mystical subjects.
   - Simple: Meant for or understood by only a few people with special knowledge, often about mystical subjects.
   - _The lecture quickly turned esoteric, and half the audience was lost within ten minutes._
   - _Under the censors, the poets wrote in an esoteric language that only their own circle could decode._
2. Private or confidential; not disclosed to others.
   - Simple: Kept secret or private.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A doctrine or written treatise reserved for an initiated inner circle; also, philosophy taught only to the initiated.
- (noun) A person who believes in esoteric doctrines or rites, or who has been initiated into them.

## Origin

Ancient Greek ἐς (es) or εἰς (eis, "into") gave ἔσω (ésō, "within"), whose comparative ἐσωτέρω (esōtérō, "further inside") led to ἐσωτερικός (esōterikós), meaning "belonging to an inner circle," and English took this over as a learned borrowing. At first the term meant the secret teachings of Greek philosophers, in contrast with their public, or exoteric, ones.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/esoteric (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).