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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Esoteric \Es'o*ter"ic\, noun (Philos.) (a) An esoteric doctrine or treatise; esoteric philosophy; esoterics. (b) One who believes, or is an initiate, in esoteric doctrines or rites. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Esoteric \Es'o*ter"ic\ ([e^]s'[-o]*t[e^]"[i^]k), adjective [Gr. 'eswteriko's, fr. 'esw'teros inner, interior, comp. fr. 'e'sw in, within, fr. 'es, e'is, into, fr. 'en in. See {In}.]
1. Designed for, and understood by, the specially initiated alone; not communicated, or not intelligible, to the general body of followers; private; interior; acroamatic; -- said of discussions of technical topics and of the private and more recondite instructions and doctrines of philosophers. Opposed to {exoteric}.
Enough if every age produce two or three critics of this esoteric class, with here and there a reader to understand them. --De Quincey.
2. Marked by secrecy or privacy; private; select; confidential; as, an esoteric purpose; an esoteric meeting. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
esoteric
adjective: confined to and understandable by only an enlightened inner circle; "a compilation of esoteric philosophical theories" [ant: {exoteric}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
155 Moby Thesaurus words for "esoteric": absolute, abstract, abstruse, anagogic, arcane, auricular, between the lines, between us, cabalic, cabalistic, censored, certain, classified, close, closed, concealed, concrete, confidential, covert, cryptic, dark, deep, deep-seated, defined, definite, delitescent, detailed, determinate, different, distinct, distinguished, dormant, eerie, enigmatic, especial, exceptional, express, extramundane, extraordinary, extraterrestrial, fey, fixed, heavy, hermetic, hibernating, hidden, hush-hush, hypernormal, hyperphysical, immanent, implanted, implicit, in petto, inalienable, individual, indwelling, infixed, ingrained, inherent, inner, inside, internal, intimate, intrinsic, inward, inwrought, irreducible, latent, lurking, metaphysic, minute, muffled, mysterious, mystic, not for publication, noteworthy, numinous, obfuscated, obscured, occult, off the record, otherworldly, particular, personal, possible, potential, precise, preterhuman, preternatural, preternormal, pretersensual, private, privileged, profound, psychic, recondite, resident, respective, restricted, sealed, secret, several, singular, sleeping, smothered, solipsistic, special, specific, spiritual, stifled, subjective, submerged, superhuman, supernatural, supernormal, superphysical, supersensible, supersensual, suppressed, supramundane, supranatural, theosophical, theosophist, top secret, transcendental, transmundane, ulterior, unalienable, unbreatheable, unchallengeable, under privilege, under security, under the surface, under wraps, underlying, undisclosable, undisclosed, undivulgable, undivulged, unearthly, unhuman, unmanifested, unpublishable, unquestionable, unrevealable, unrevealed, unspoken, untellable, untold, unutterable, unuttered, unwhisperable, unworldly, veiled, virtual
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
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.
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