English

Noun

esotery ‎(plural esoteries)

1. Mystery; esoterics; knowledge or lore that is esoteric.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of A. Tucker to this entry?)

   • 1839 September 26, "Vindex," Letter to the editor, The Musical World, Number CLXXXIV [New Series no. XCI], Volume XII [New Series Volume V], May 23—December 26 1839, page 334,

     But a more important division of the musical public, is that of the learned and unlearned, the esoteries and exoteries ; and in no country whatever have I yet heard a perfectly educated musician call Mozart second-rate.

   • 1925, Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Issues 56-57, page 222,

     Later on, the doctrine, owing to the contact with the esoteries of the Upanishads, was burdened with scholastic elements: the ideal of an Arhat, aspiring to Nirvana, was excogitated.

   • 1954, William Bruce Cameron, Sociological Notes on the Jam Session, Social Forces, Volume 33, page 179, quoted in 2008, Paul Rinzler, The Contradictions of Jazz, page 54,

     This means, of course, a continual advance into abstraction and esotery, so that contemporary jazz is always musical casuistry, forever seeking new ways to rationalize the impossible.

   • 1995, Bhai Nahar Singh, Bhai Kirpal Singh, Rebels Against the British Rule, page 99,

     Whilst Ram Singh was in quasi-confinemcnt at Bhainee, there was a charm of mystery and esotery about the man, to which our espionage, perhaps, added a spice of fascinating prosecution.

   • 1996, Anthony Julius, T.S. Eliot, anti-semitism, and literary form, page 92,

     Indeed, one might suppose that its esoteries, its intangibilities, and its rarefied and personal visions, would make it invulnerable to the conformist vulgarities of anti-Semitism.

   • 2007, Pane Andov, Extraordinary Powers in Humans, page 72,

     That was the time when my uncle went to Tibet and I was learning the secrets of esotery from my second teacher Velibor Rabljenovich.

Antonyms

• exotery