occult

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin occultus (“hidden, concealed, secret”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the past participle of occulō (“to cover over, hide”),^[2][3][4][7] and Etymonline and Barnhart see it as partly also borrowed from Middle French occulte.^[3][8][9] Barnhart thinks the adjective may also have been formed from the English verb.^[8] The Latin verb is formed from ob- (“over”) and a stem related to cēlō (“to hide”),^{[2][3][7][10][11]} the source of conceal,^[7][6] from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to hide, cover”),^[6][3] the root also of hell.^[12] The verb is borrowed from Latin occultō (“to hide, conceal”), the frequentative of occulō;^{[2][12][6][13]} Barnhart suggests that it is partly a back-formation from occultation.^[8] The noun is the adjective used with the definite article.^[2][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Secret, not disclosed, or communicated only to the initiated: 1480, in Caxton's Curia Sapiencie.^[2] Barnhart dates the adjective to 1533^[8] and Etymonline to the 1530s,^[3] and Merriam-Webster to about 1513.^[12] The verb, to hide, is recorded from before 1500, in a translation of Rolle's Mending of Life.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

When English took the word it still meant broadly "secret, hidden",^[7] as in John Maplet's 1567 description of metals as the earth's "hid and occult plants".^[7][2] From the 1540s it also meant beyond the reach of ordinary understanding.^[3][2] Johnson (1755) defined it as secret, hidden or unknown, quoting Hamlet's "occult guilt".^[9] The link with magic, alchemy, astrology and similar arts, which became the main sense, dates from 1593 in the OED^[2] and the 1630s in Etymonline;^[3] Ayto places the beginnings of the supernatural associations in the 17th century.^[7] Phrases such as occult philosophy and occult sciences echo occulta philosophia, the title of Agrippa's work of 1531, and sciences occultes.^[2] In science, occult qualities were properties that could not be observed directly (1652), and in medicine an occult disease is one without obvious signs (1651).^[2] The noun the occult, the supernatural world and the arts dealing with it, is recorded from before 1888.^[2][12] The verb, to hide, was given an astronomical sense in 1765, of one celestial body passing in front of another,^[2] and in 1852 it was used of a lighthouse light that is cut off at regular intervals.^[2]

Timeline

• 1480 – adjective, secret, kept from the uninitiated.^[2]
• before 1500 – verb, to hide or conceal.^[2][8]
• before 1549 – beyond ordinary understanding, mysterious.^[2]
• 1567 – hidden from sight.^[2][7]
• 1593 – relating to magic, alchemy, astrology and similar arts.^[2]
• 1651 – in medicine, of a disease, hard to detect.^[2]
• 1765 – verb, in astronomy, to hide another celestial body by passing in front of it.^[2]
• 1852 – verb, of a lighthouse light, to be cut off at intervals.^[2]
• before 1888 – noun, the occult, the supernatural.^[2][12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Relating to magic, astrology, alchemy or other arts held to involve secret or supernatural powers: a shop selling occult books and tarot cards.^[11][12][2]
2. Beyond ordinary human understanding; mysterious or abstruse.^[11][12][2]
3. Kept secret or known only to a few; esoteric.^[11][12][2]
4. (medicine) Not readily detected; hidden or without clear symptoms.^[2]

Noun

1. the occult: the supernatural, and the arts and practices concerned with it: a lifelong interest in the occult.^[11][12][2]

Verb

1. In astronomy, of a celestial body, to hide another from view by passing in front of it; see occultation.^[11][12][2]
2. To hide or shut off from view.^[11][12][2]
3. Of a light, especially in a lighthouse, to be shut off at regular intervals.^[11][2]

Word family

• occultly
• occultness
• occulter
• nonocculting
• occultism

Related words

• occultation
• conceal
• cell
• hell

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press