The opposite of esoteric is exoteric, which means "suitable to be imparted to the public." According to one account, those who were deemed worthy to attend the Greek philosopher Aristotle's learned discussions were known as his "esoterics," his confidants, while those who merely attended his popular evening lectures were called his "exoterics." Since material that is geared toward a target audience is often not as easily comprehensible to outside observers, esoteric acquired an extended meaning of "difficult to understand." Both esoteric and exoteric started appearing in English in the 17th century; esoteric traces back to ancient Greek by way of the Late Latin esotericus. The Greek esōterikos is based on the comparative form of esō, which means "within."
A kahuna is a master of Hawaiian esoteric practices. Recently, Mariko Gordon and Hugh Cosman engaged a kahuna to bless their house. … Alec Wilkinson, New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2002… he listens to a group of Malaysians playing reedy, plangent music on some esoteric kind of wind instrument. Penelope Lively, City of the Mind, 1991There was a new mall, an excellent bookstore with esoteric literary and policy journals, some restaurants with cosmopolitan menus, and engaging real estate advertisements. Robert D. Kaplan, An Empire Wilderness, 1988 metaphysics is such an esoteric subject that most people are content to leave it to the philosophers must have had some esoteric motive for leaving his art collection to a museum halfway around the globe
Recent Examples on the WebJoined by the rhythm section of Bill Berry and Mike Mills, R.E.M. worked up a jangly yet esoteric sound – equal parts Velvet Underground and The Byrds — that quickly became their signature. Al Shipley, SPIN, 19 Aug. 2022 The Bell and Raven is a peaceful little shop in Simsbury specializing in paganism, mysticism, ancient magical practices, divination and other esoteric traditions. Susan Dunne, Hartford Courant, 12 Aug. 2022 Other times, the code is for performance improvement, new features, or fixes for esoteric and uncommon bugs that don’t have the same urgency. Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 5 Aug. 2022 Post spin, Labcorp (Stub entity) will retain its laboratory business comprising of routine and esoteric labs, central labs, and early development research labs. Joe Cornell, Forbes, 2 Aug. 2022 For too long, these restaurateurs believe, the fine-dining world has been an echo chamber of esoteric techniques, sustained by self-aggrandizing menus and buzzwords like foraged and grass-fed that make cash registers sing. Mehr Singh, Bon Appétit, 18 July 2022 The film also removes much of Owens’s esoteric language about Kya’s connection to wildlife, making the material feel like a Nicholas Sparks project. Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 15 July 2022 There’s something a bit subversive about hot pink, a little bit trollish, a little bit esoteric. Katy Kelleher, refinery29.com, 14 July 2022 That makes his newest project, Wagenmusik — an EP out July 14 that diverges from his usually esoteric sound to make a more accessible kind of dance music — all the more surprising. Arielle Lana Lejarde, Rolling Stone, 13 July 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Late Latin esotericus, from Greek esōterikos, from esōterō, comparative of eisō, esō within, from eis into; akin to Greek en in — more at in