Dictionary.com Word Of The Day
MARCH 24, 2017
esoterica plural noun [es-uh-TER-i-kuh]
1. things understood by or meant for a select few; recondite matters or
items.
2. curiosa.
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G20 he was in his elementâan instinctively global leader wading
throughesoterica that most people couldn't grasp, taking charge by dint
of his superior knowledge.
-- , "Why Gordon Brown Struggles So Mightily," Newsweek, June 11, 2009
ORIGINEsoterica is a noun derived from the Greek adjective esÅterikós
âbelonging to the initiate, inner, esoteric.â EsÅterikós has a
distinguished history in ancient Greek philosophical systems
(Pythagorean, Aristotelian, Stoic). Esoterica, if not coined by Ogden
Nash (1902â71), was popularized by him in a poem of his published in
The New Yorker in 1930. The poem contains the line âThe postal
authorities of the United States of America Frown on Curiosa, Erotica
and Esoterica, And I guess / That's a break for the American Railway
Express,â referring to the notorious obscenity trials over James
Joyceâs Ulysses that had been going on since 1922 and were finally
settled in 1933.