Cultist
[In sense 1, a. Sp. cultismo, F. cultisme, f. Sp. culto polished, elegant (:{em}L. cultus cultivated): see -ISM; Góngora gave the appellation estilo culto to his style of writing; in sense 2, f. CULT n. + -ISM.]
- 1. A kind of affected elegance of style which prevailed in Spanish literature in the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th c.; also called Góngorism after the poet Góngora. So {sm}cultist, a writer affecting cultism.
1839 Blackw. Mag. XLVI. 718 Francesco de Roxas, a celebrated cultist in style. 1870 LOWELL Study Wind. 391 The school of the cultists. 1887 MOREL-FATIO in Encycl. Brit. XXII. 360 The cultism of Góngora, the artifice of which lies solely in the choice and arrangement of words.
- 2. The spirit, system, or practice of a cult or a cultic activity. So {sm}cultist, a person practising cultism; cul{sm}tistic a.
1917 C. R. PAYNE tr. Pfister's Psych. Method II. xvi. 453 For the evangelical pastor, the aim in question is not a cultistic servitude for the confessional as a means of supernatural grace, but an ethical..purification purpose. 1933 Fortune Aug. 47/3 But the cultist will often go to preposterous lengths. 1934 WEBSTER, Cultism. 1949 R. K. MERTON Social Theory & Struct. (1951) xii. 314 Cultism, informal cliques..these and other techniques may be used for self-aggrandizement. 1955 KEEPNEWS & GRAUER Pict. Hist. Jazz. xix. 243 Bop did have its share of dubious quirks and of inferior musicians and cultism. 1957 P. WORSLEY Trumpet shall Sound x. 214 The Kukuaik movement on Karkar Island began as an orthodox independent Christian body and later turned towards Cargo cultism. 1962 Sunday Express 25 Feb. 13/2 The police were sent..after 68 members of the super-race cult.. The cultists massed on a beach. 1970 Daily Tel. 23 Oct. 4 A deranged group of cultists calling itself the ‘People of the Free Universe’ and threatening death to anyone ‘misusing the natural environment’.[1]
