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==Origin==
[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._1100-1500_.09THE_MIDDLE_ENGLISH_PERIOD Middle English] secte, from Anglo-French & Late Latin & [[Latin]]; Anglo-French, group, faction, from Late Latin secta organized [[ecclesiastical]] body, from Latin, [[course]] of [[action]], way of life, probably from sectari to pursue, frequentative of sequi to follow
*[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.
[edit]
==Definitions==
*1a : a dissenting or schismatic [[religious]] body; especially : one regarded as [[extreme]] or [[heretical]]
:b : a religious denomination
*2: archaic : [[sex]] 1 <so is all her sect — Shakespeare>
*3a : a [[group]] adhering to a distinctive [[doctrine]] or to a [[leader]]
:b : party
:c : faction
==Description==
A '''sect''' is a [[group]] with distinctive [[religious]], [[political]] or [[philosophical]] [[beliefs]]. Although in past it was mostly used to refer to religious groups, it has since expanded and in [[modern]] [[culture]] can refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a [[different]] set of rules and principles. The term is occasionally used in a malicious way to suggest the broken-off group follows a more [[negative]] path than the [[original]]. The historical usage of the term sect in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christendom Christendom] has had pejorative connotations, referring to a [[group]] or [[movement]] with [[heretical]] [[beliefs]] or [[practices]] that deviate from those of groups considered [[orthodox]].
The English sociologist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Wallis Roy Wallis] [[argues]] that a sect is characterized by “epistemological authoritarianism”: sects possess some [[authoritative]] locus for the legitimate attribution of [[heresy]]. According to Wallis, “sects lay a claim to [[possess]] [[unique]] and [[privileged]] access to the [[truth]] or salvation and “their committed adherents typically regard all those outside the confines of the collectivity as 'in [[error]]'”. He [[contrasts]] this with a [[cult]] that he described as characterized by “epistemological individualism” by which he means that “the cult has no clear locus of final [[authority]] beyond the [[individual]] member.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sect]
[[Category: Religion]]
[[Category: Sociology]]
==Origin==
[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._1100-1500_.09THE_MIDDLE_ENGLISH_PERIOD Middle English] secte, from Anglo-French & Late Latin & [[Latin]]; Anglo-French, group, faction, from Late Latin secta organized [[ecclesiastical]] body, from Latin, [[course]] of [[action]], way of life, probably from sectari to pursue, frequentative of sequi to follow
*[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.
[edit]
==Definitions==
*1a : a dissenting or schismatic [[religious]] body; especially : one regarded as [[extreme]] or [[heretical]]
:b : a religious denomination
*2: archaic : [[sex]] 1 <so is all her sect — Shakespeare>
*3a : a [[group]] adhering to a distinctive [[doctrine]] or to a [[leader]]
:b : party
:c : faction
==Description==
A '''sect''' is a [[group]] with distinctive [[religious]], [[political]] or [[philosophical]] [[beliefs]]. Although in past it was mostly used to refer to religious groups, it has since expanded and in [[modern]] [[culture]] can refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a [[different]] set of rules and principles. The term is occasionally used in a malicious way to suggest the broken-off group follows a more [[negative]] path than the [[original]]. The historical usage of the term sect in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christendom Christendom] has had pejorative connotations, referring to a [[group]] or [[movement]] with [[heretical]] [[beliefs]] or [[practices]] that deviate from those of groups considered [[orthodox]].
The English sociologist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Wallis Roy Wallis] [[argues]] that a sect is characterized by “epistemological authoritarianism”: sects possess some [[authoritative]] locus for the legitimate attribution of [[heresy]]. According to Wallis, “sects lay a claim to [[possess]] [[unique]] and [[privileged]] access to the [[truth]] or salvation and “their committed adherents typically regard all those outside the confines of the collectivity as 'in [[error]]'”. He [[contrasts]] this with a [[cult]] that he described as characterized by “epistemological individualism” by which he means that “the cult has no clear locus of final [[authority]] beyond the [[individual]] member.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sect]
[[Category: Religion]]
[[Category: Sociology]]
