From Greek 'exotikos' (foreign, from outside) — literally the vocabulary of outsiderness, linked to allure through colonial encounters.
Definition
Originating in or characteristic of a distant foreign country; strikingly unusual or colorful.
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Greek1590swell-attested
From Latin 'exōticus,' from Greek 'exōtikos' (foreign, from the outside), from 'exō' (outside, outward), from 'ex' (out of), from PIE *h₁eǵʰs (out of, from). In classical Greek, 'exōtikos' was a precise philosophical term: Aristotle used it to distinguish 'exoteric' teachings (public lectures accessible to outsiders) from 'esoteric' ones (private instruction for initiated students within the school). The word thus originally marked a boundary between insiders and outsiders in the transmission of knowledge. When the word entered French and then
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In Greekphilosophy, 'exoteric' (for outsiders) was the opposite of 'esoteric' (for insiders). Aristotle's 'exoteric' works were his publiclectures, accessible to all; his 'esoteric' works were for advanced students only. 'Exotic' — meaning foreign, from outside — is thus the cousin of 'esoteric,' and both derive from the spatial metaphor of inside versus outside.
were framed as alluring curiosities. The same PIE root *h₁eǵʰs gave Latin 'ex' (out of), Greek 'ex/ek' (out of), and Old Irish 'ess-' (out of). Related English words