exotic

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ɪɡˈzɒt.ɪk/, US /ɪɡˈzɑː.t̬ɪk/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French exotique (1548, in Rabelais) and directly Latin exōticus,^[2][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek ἐξωτικός (exōtikós, “foreign, from outside”),^[2][3][6] from ἔξω (éxō, “outside”) (see exo-).^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Foreign, introduced from abroad: 1599, in Ben Jonson's Every Man Out of His Humour.^[2][7][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense unusual or strange, from the notion of alien or outlandish, is first recorded in 1629.^[2][3] The noun, an exotic plant, is from about 1645.^[2][3][5] The idea of foreign origin gave the word glamour,^[6] and the American exotic dancer, a striptease artist, is attested by 1942.^[3][6] Exotic fuels are from 1957,^[7] and exotica appeared in a book title in 1876.^[2]

Timeline

• 1599 – foreign.^[2][7]
• 1629 – unusual, strange.^[2]
• c. 1645 – an exotic plant.^[2]
• 1876 – exotica.^[2]
• 1942 – exotic dancer (US).^[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. From another part of the world; foreign, not native: an exotic plant.
2. Strikingly unusual or strange; glamorous.
3. Of or involving striptease.
4. (New Zealand) Of trees, native to the northern hemisphere but grown in New Zealand.

Noun

1. An exotic person or thing.
2. A striptease dancer.

Word family

• exotically
• exoticness
• nonexotic
• unexotic
• exoticism
• exotic dancer

Related words

• exotica
• exo-
• exoteric

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press