occult
pronunciation
How to pronounce occult in British English:
UK [ˈɒkʌlt]
How to pronounce occult in American English:
US [əˈkʌlt]
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- Noun:
- supernatural forces and events and beings collectively
- occult practices and techniques
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- Verb:
- cause an eclipse of (a celestial body) by intervention
- become concealed or hidden from view or have its light extinguished
- hide from view
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- Adjective:
- hidden and difficult to see
- having an import not apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence; beyond ordinary understanding
Word Origin
- occult
- occult: [16] Something that is occult is etymologically ‘hidden’. The word comes from the past participle of Latin occulere ‘hide’, a compound verb formed from the prefix ob- and an unrecorded *celere, a relative of cēlāre ‘hide’ (which forms the second syllable of English conceal). When English acquired it, it still meant broadly ‘secret, hidden’ (‘Metals are nothing else but the earth’s hid and occult plants’, John Maplet, Green Forest 1567), a sense preserved in the derived astronomical term occultation ‘obscuring of one celestial body by another’ [16].The modern associations with supernatural mysteries did not begin to emerge until the 17th century.=> cell, conceal, hall, hell
- occult (adj.)
- 1530s, "secret, not divulged," from Middle French occulte and directly from Latin occultus "hidden, concealed, secret," past participle of occulere "cover over, conceal," from ob "over" (see ob-) + a verb related to celare "to hide," from PIE root *kel- (2) "to cover, conceal" (see cell). Meaning "not apprehended by the mind, beyond the range of understanding" is from 1540s. The association with the supernatural sciences (magic, alchemy, astrology, etc.) dates from 1630s.
Example
- 1. Practices are what classed as the occult ?
- 2. Search engine technology is almost an occult art to common user .
- 3. Bring up a topic that touches on the supernatural , mysticism , reincarnation , spiritualism or the occult .
- 4. Many shiite muslims - like many fundamentalist christians - consider fortune-telling an occult practice and therefore evil .
- 5. Sally 's mother falls in love with an occult bookshop owner obsessed with his deceased wife .