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*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_century 14th Century]
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_century 14th Century]
The [[word]] sect comes from the [[Latin]] noun secta (a feminine form of a variant past participle of the verb sequi, to follow), meaning "(beaten) path", and figuratively a (prescribed) way, mode, or [[manner]], and hence metonymously, a [[discipline]] or [[school]] of [[thought]] as defined by a set of [[methods]] and [[doctrines]]. The present gamut of [[meanings]] of sect has been [[influenced]] by [[confusion]] with the homonymous (but etymologically unrelated) [[Latin]] word secta (the feminine form of the past participle of the verb secare, to cut), as sects were scissions cut away from the [[mainstream]] religion. Note that speakers of some other languages use the same word for both the [[meaning]] sect and the meaning [[cult]], for example in Italian: setta.
The [[word]] sect comes from the [[Latin]] noun secta (a feminine form of a variant past participle of the verb sequi, to follow), meaning "(beaten) path", and figuratively a (prescribed) way, mode, or [[manner]], and hence metonymously, a [[discipline]] or [[school]] of [[thought]] as defined by a set of [[methods]] and [[doctrines]]. The present gamut of [[meanings]] of sect has been [[influenced]] by [[confusion]] with the homonymous (but etymologically unrelated) [[Latin]] word secta (the feminine form of the past participle of the verb secare, to cut), as sects were scissions cut away from the [[mainstream]] religion. Note that speakers of some other languages use the same word for both the [[meaning]] sect and the meaning [[cult]], for example in Italian: setta.
==Definitions==
==Definitions==
*1a : a dissenting or schismatic [[religious]] body; especially : one regarded as [[extreme]] or [[heretical]]
*1a : a dissenting or schismatic [[religious]] body; especially : one regarded as [[extreme]] or [[heretical]]
