cultn.
/kʌlt/, U.S. /kəlt/ 1. The action or an act of paying reverential homage to a divine being; religious worship. Now rare. In later use chiefly in historical or anthropological contexts.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > worship > [noun]
worthingeOE
bigengOE
worshipOE
knowledgingc1225
praising?c1225
holinessc1275
servicec1275
servingc1275
shrifta1300
anourc1330
worshippinga1333
devotion1340
blessing1382
the calves of our lipsc1384
gloryc1384
magnifyingc1384
worshipfulnessc1390
adoringc1405
divine service1415
adorationc1443
reverencingc1443
praise1447
culture1483
common servicea1500
venerationa1530
thanksgiving1533
cult1613
cultus1617
doxology1649
glorifying1748
feasting1840
1613 T. Fitzherbert Adioynder to Suppl. R. Persons Discuss. ix. 380 M. Andrewes..will needs vnderstand the word adoration, that is, for a diuine Cult, and worship.
1683 D. A. Whole Art Converse 92 That Sovereign Cult due to God only.
a1706 J. Evelyn Hist. Relig. (1850) II. ix. 39 God, abolishing the cult of Gentile idols, reduced it to His own service.
1897 Amer. Jrnl. Theol. 1 488 An earnest desire to reform the life of the nation, both in morals and in cult.
1920 J. B. Pratt Relig. Consciousness xii. 264 Each new rite, moreover, that is added as religion develops will owe its explanation to some new belief or to some old social custom... Thus faith and cult will mutually influence each other.
2.
a. A particular form or system of religious worship or veneration, esp. as expressed in ceremony or ritual directed towards a specified figure or object. Frequently with of or modifying word.Chiefly in historical, archaeological, or anthropological contexts.ancestor, cargo, rain, river cult, etc.: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > worship > kinds of worship > [noun]
cult1679
cultus1838
society > faith > aspects of faith > religion > a religion or church > [noun]
churcheOE
kirkc1175
spousea1200
lawa1225
lorea1225
religionc1325
faithc1384
sectc1386
seta1387
leara1400
hirselc1480
professiona1513
congregation1526
communion1553
schism1555
segregation1563
sex1583
hortus conclususa1631
confessiona1641
dispensation1643
sectary1651
churchship1675
cult1679
persuasion1732
denomination1746–7
connection1753
covenant1818
sectarism1821
organized religion1843
1679 W. Penn Addr. Protestants ii. App. 245 Let not every circumstantial difference or Variety of Cult be Nick-named a new Religion.
1781 W. Hamilton Let. 30 Dec. in R. P. Knight Acct. Worship of Priapus (1786) 7 The singularity of the ceremony, so very similar to that which attended the ancient Cult of the God of the Gardens.
1850 W. E. Gladstone Homer II. 211 While she [sc. Proserpine] has a cult or worship on earth, he [sc. Aidoneus] apparently has none.
1859 L. Oliphant China & Japan I. xii. 242 They are devoted in their attentions to the objects of their culte.
1874 J. P. Mahaffy Social Life Greece xi. 350 There were even in the cult of Aphrodite allowances made for the gratification of the animal nature.
1913 C. H. Toy Introd. Hist. Relig. 477 In certain regions..Buddhism coalesces with popular nature-cults and shamanistic systems, and loses its nontheistic character.
1949 M. L. King in R. E. Luker & P. A. Russell Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1992) 212 One of the most interesting of these ancient cults was Mithraism.
1969 K. Clark Civilisation ii. 58 From the first this relic had worked miracles, but only in the twelfth century did the cult of the Virgin appeal to the popular imagination.
2005 M. Balter Goddess & Bull xv. 279 The skull cults at early Neolithic sites like Jericho and Çayönü, in which heads were removed from bodies and manipulated in various apparently symbolic ways.
b. A relatively small group of people having (esp. religious) beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister, or as exercising excessive control over members.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social relations > an association, society, or organization > types of association, society, or organization > [noun] > other types of association, society, or organization
invisible college1647
rota1660
working party1744
free association1761
working committee1821
Ethical Society1822
bar association1824
league1846
congress1870
tiger1874
cult1875
Daughters of the American Revolution1890
community group1892
housing association1898
working party1902
development agency1910
affinity group1915
propaganda machine1916
funding body1922
collective1925
Ku-Klux1930
network1946
NGO1946
production brigade1950
umbrella organization1950
plantation1956
think-tank1958
think group1961
team1990
1875 Brit. Mail 30 Jan. 13/1 Buffaloism is, it would seem, a cult, a creed, a secret community, the members of which are bound together by strange and weird vows, and listen in hidden conclave to mysterious lore.
1904 Lowell (Mass.) Sun 28 May 3/4 Free love cult... One more ‘cult’ has been added to Chicago's roster of freak religious societies.
1927 Appleton (Wisconsin) Post-Crescent 10 Oct. 18/1 Evidence that the strange burial of a youthful ‘priestess’ of the religious cult..may have been preceded by ritualistic and unreported burials of other cult members.
1957 Amer. Sociol. Rev. 22 561/2 An opportunity to study public reaction to a man whose small band of followers regarded him as Christ (and who himself acknowledged that status) arose... We were able to..facilitate fairly systematic study of this embryonic cult.
1980 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 85 1377 Cults.., like other deviant social movements, tend to recruit people with a grievance, people who suffer from some variety of deprivation.
2013 C. Jones Child for Devil ii. 26 She went missing down south two years ago, joined a cult.
3. In extended use: a collective obsession with or intense admiration for a particular person, thing, or idea.In quot. 1711 as a mass noun.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > esteem > respect > reverence > [noun] > by body of professed adherents
cult1711
1711 Ld. Shaftesbury Characteristicks I. iii. 281 Thus is every one convinc'd of the reality of a better Self, and of the Cult or Homage which is due to It.
1829 Examiner 25 Oct. 673/2 The two idolatries..are Mammon-Worship and Fashion-Worship. These cults are generally to be found in the same house.
1879 Q. Rev. Apr. 368 The cult of beauty as the most vivid image of Truth.
1889 John Bull 2 Mar. 141/2 An evidence of the decay of the Wordsworth cult.
1937 Musical Q. 23 421 The cult of Wagner threatened the musical foundations of the whole of Western Europe.
1945 ‘G. Orwell’ in Tribune 14 Dec. 10/3 Instead of blah-blahing about the clean, healthy rivalry of the football field..it is more useful to inquire how and why this modern cult of sport arose.
2001 M. Gellert Fate of Amer. xiv. 215 Before 'Trekkies', there was an Elvis cult that claimed innumerable devout followers.
Phrases
cult of personality: a collective obsession with, or intense, excessive, or uncritical admiration for, a particular public figure, esp. a political leader; the instigation of such an obsession; cf. personality cult n. at personality n. and adj. Compounds 2.Frequently associated with totalitarian leaders (esp. Stalin) and their idealized portrayal by means of propaganda, manipulation of the mass media, etc.
ΚΠ
1898 N.Y. Times 6 Nov. 19/7 The Oriental voyage of his spectacular Majesty, William II., gives the German newspapers plenty of opportunity for speculation, and incidentally offers many examples of the peculiar cult of personality indulged in by the German people.
1920 Observer 26 Sept. 12/2 In politics, as in the army and boxing, the cult of personality is in the ascendant.
1933 Billings (Montana) Gaz. 5 Mar. 15/3 Hanfstaengl..coached [Hitler]..in the introduction of high-pressure American advertising methods. The cult of personality until then was almost unknown in German political life.
1953 Times 8 Sept. 6/6 Such incorrect methods of work..‘often result in one-sided, poorly-devised, and..erroneous decisions,’ the editorial [in the official journal of the Cominform] added. It branded the cult of personality as ‘harmful and intolerable’ and contrary to ‘Marx Leninism’.
1978 Newsweek (Nexis) 16 Oct. 125 Our culture's genius lies in technology, marketing and the cult of personality; movies and photography are the art forms most in keeping with the times.
2011 L. Cernak Totalitarianism v. 61 In North Korea, Kim Jong II continues his father's cult of personality by erecting thousands of statues in his likeness all over the country.
Compounds
C1. General attributive and other compounds.
a. Chiefly Cultural Anthropology and Archaeology. In sense 2a, as cult object, cult practice, cult ritual, etc.
ΚΠ
1883 L. M. Mitchell Hist. Anc. Sculpt. iii. 52 In the Egyptian temple, there was no central cult statue of the god, as in the temples of the Greeks.
1896 L. R. Farnell Cults Greek States II. xiii. 438 The Arcadian myth of Callisto, which we may believe to be based on certain ancient cult-practices.
1906 D. G. Hogarth in Proc. Brit. Acad. 1905–6 375 Small objects dedicated in that temple, among which are several cult-figurines of the Goddess.
a1930 D. H. Lawrence Apocalypse (1931) vii. 117 Cult-lore was the wisdom of the old races.
1950 H. L. Lorimer Homer & Monuments vi. 349 The earliest cult-image of the goddess.
1957 Antiquity & Survival 2 167/1 Near it a cult mask, made of clay, was still lying on the floor... In a further room, we discovered a unique cult-standard.
1991 A. Unterman Dict. Jewish Lore & Legend 22/2 The use of oil to anoint a person or a cult-object indicated that it had entered into a new status and was brought under special divine guidance.
2010 M. Gagarin & E. Fantham Oxf. Encycl. Anc. Greece & Rome 130/2 In cult ritual a number of different animals were sacrificed to Aphrodite.
b. In sense 2b, as cult leader, cult member, etc.
ΚΠ
1906 Chicago Tribune 31 Oct. 1/3 (heading) Reporters allowed glance of cult leader feel as in presence of apparition.
1923 Los Angeles Times 1 May 4/2 (heading) Cult quiz to be resumed today... Decision expected on opening of member's grave.
1969 N.Y. Times 12 Dec. 76/1 Charles Manson, known to his hippie cult followers as ‘God’, ‘Jesus’, or ‘Satan’.
1978 Facts on File (Nexis) 24 Nov. a1 At Jonestown the soldiers were horrified to find the bodies of hundreds of cult members who had been shot or had committed suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.
2006 P. Woit Not even Wrong xii. 196 To add to its mystique, the cult leader who coined the term never explained what the M stood for, and M-theorists heatedly debate this important issue.
C2.
a. attributive. Designating cultural phenomena with a strong, often enduring appeal to a relatively small audience; (also) designating this appeal or audience, or any resultant success; fringe, non-mainstream. Hence: possessing a fashionable or exclusive cachet; spec. (of a writer or other artist, his or her works, etc.) regarded as important or influential despite limited public exposure or commercial success.
ΚΠ
1927 Independent (U.S.) 2 Apr. 366/3 Cocteau very aptly characterizes the cult authors as momentary literary fads.
1961 R. Heppenstall Fourfold Trad. ii. ii. 145 This is asking a lot of the general reader and helps to keep Ulysses in its curious position as a cult book.
1979 Illustr. London News Jan. 7/2 Michael Crichton (in his second feature film) handles the mechanics of horror with great flair. Could become a cult classic.
1985 Music Week 2 Feb. (Advt. Suppl.) Bauhaus..achieved the highest level of cult success in the UK from '81–'83, with four silver albums.
1993 Boulevard Spring 25 Eraserhead was a midnight cult movie, but Blue Velvet was the movie that made Lynch famous.
2000 F. Walker in J. Adams et al. Girls' Night In 39 Last year's pop sensation Ruby ‘Red’ Richmond had been supposedly in lurve with cult actor Slim Tim Gorman for several weeks.
b.
cult following n.
ΚΠ
1945 Coll. Eng. Apr. 401/2 Korzybski stepped forth as the anti-Aristotle and immediately..won for himself a cult following among our intelligentsia.
1968 Punch 3 July 32/2 There has been a small cult-following for [Nathanael] West.
2010 Time Out N.Y. 26 Aug. 120/1 The weekend is heavy on dinosaur bands with cult followings—something that's typified ATP festival of the recent past.
cult status n.
ΚΠ
1958 Variety 30 July 117/3 Miss Faye's following is approaching the cult status.
1991 Twenty Twenty Spring 92/3 Tolkien's Lord of the Rings..became a major publishing phenomenon when its late Sixties Ballantine paperback edition attained campus cult status.
2009 New Yorker 26 Oct. 21/1 The piece..has attained cult status in avant-garde circles.
C3.
cult figure n. (a) a figurine or other object venerated as part of a system of ritual or worship; (b) a person, esp. a writer or other artist, with a strong appeal to a small audience, or who is influential despite limited public exposure or commercial success.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > [noun] > idol
godeOE
anlikenessOE
stockc1000
mammetc1225
Mahometc1275
Mahoundc1275
idola1325
simulacre1382
marmoseta1398
mammetrya1400
puppet1534
poppet?1548
block1570
Dagona1572
pagoda1582
pagody1588
Mokisso1634
poppet deitya1641
pageant idol1696
pageant thing1696
afgod1769
cult figure1895
1895 W. Hough in Rep. U.S. Comm. Columbian Hist. Expos. Madris 1892–3 344 On the small cult figures this slip was applied with a brush.
1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 17 Oct. 592/2 Those to whom Scott Fitzgerald has become a cult figure are not his contemporaries.
1977 Hist. Relig. 17 115 The sun chariot from Trundholm,..a symbol of the sun and probably the cult figure of a shrine which was conducted from time to time in procession across the fields.
2001 Sci. Fiction Chron. June 44/2 Philip K. Dick died of strokes 19 years ago, and has remained a kind of literary cult figure since.
cult hero n. (a) a (usually male) mythological or historical figure, venerated within a particular culture or as part of a belief system (cf. culture hero n. at culture n. Compounds 2); (b) a (usually male) public figure, esp. a writer or other artist, with a strong appeal to a relatively small audience, or who is influential despite limited public exposure or commercial success.
ΚΠ
1881 R. M. Dorman Origin Primitive Superstitions Index 393/2 Atotarho, Iroquois cult-hero.
1932 New Yorker 4 June 21/1 Bill Fallon, the Great Mouthpiece, is still the cult hero of the criminal bar.
1949 Harper's Mag. Dec. 110/2 He [sc. Faulkner] is a cult hero among so many young and brilliant and susceptible writers.
1967 R. P. Martin Carmen Christi vi. 156 As to the cult-heroes, whether human (like Alexander) or semi-human, semi-divine (like Herakles), they aspire to divinization.
2011 Guardian (Nexis) 22 Sept. 3 The group released a series of records and were cult heroes on the US college rock circuit before finding worldwide fame in the 90s.
cult heroine n. (a) a female mythological or historical figure, venerated within a particular culture or as part of a belief system; (b) a female public figure, esp. a writer or other artist, with a strong appeal to a relatively small audience, or who is influential despite limited public exposure or commercial success.
ΚΠ
1918 E. W. Hopkins Hist. Relig. 109 A [Chibcha] cult-heroine, Huitaca, who may be the Moon, taught..a religion of joy and dancing.
1973 N.Y. Times 14 Jan. 135/1 Miss DeGaetani, a versatile mezzo-soprano who is most renowned—a cult heroine, really—in the hermetic world of contemporary music.
1977 Amer. Antiq. 42 510 The cult heroine of this Hopi group is Dawn Woman, ‘owner of all crops’ and goddess of childbirth.
2012 Sunday Tel. (Nexis) 11 Nov. (Features section) 48 The feverishly anticipated third and final outing for jumper-clad cult heroine Sarah Lund.., screening in double bills over the next five Saturdays.
Derivatives
cult-like adj.
ΚΠ
1919 Mem. Amer. Anthropol. Assoc. 6 274 In the Plains area the cult-like organizations are shown..to be probable diffusions from a culture-trait center which have reached the more remote tribes only in part.
1983 K. Dryden Game 207 A city would..need to be so large that even a cult-like percentage of followers could attract 15,000 people for a game.
2013 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 6 Mar. c2/1 Stieg Larsson's crime novels and ‘Nordic noir’ television series like ‘The Killing’ have inspired almost cultlike followings.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
† cultadj.
Obsolete.
Of a person: refined, cultured.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > good behaviour > [adjective] > well-mannered > polished or refined
well-polished1485
civil?1538
politic1596
cult1598
refined1598
inlanda1616
facete1616
urbane1623
terse1628
gentilitat1632
polite1751
politeful1832
1598 F. Meres tr. Luis de Granada Sinners Guyde i. xix. 207 For they doe adorne and fashion themselues onely to this end, that they may seeme neate and cult, thereby to gaine the prayse and vaine opinion and applause of the people.
1617 S. Collins Epphata to F. T. ii. ix. 371 You tell vs most absurdly of a diuine cult..for so cult you are, or so quilted in your tearmes.
1628 J. Jackson Ecclesiastes To Rdr. sig. A He is throughout curt, cult, and methodicall.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2013; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
<
n.1613
adj.1598