esotericism

English

Etymology

From esoteric +‎ -ism.

Noun

esotericism (countable and uncountable, plural esotericisms)

  1. The tendency to promote or desire the esoteric.
    Antonym: exotericism
    • 2002, Dave Hill, Marxism Against Postmodernism in Educational Theory, page 257:
      Derridean "messianicity without messianism" that marks so much of post-modernist educational theorizing today, and that makes use of esotericism, sigetics, acroamatics, proleptics, and illocutionary and perlocutionary acts in the disguise of a new pedagogy of the unknowable, wasn't the answer ten years ago.
  2. (philosophy) Doctrines or practices of esoteric knowledge.
    Near-synonym: woo woo
    Western esotericism

Translations

References

  • OED2
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