the.com/cult

means A group devoted to a person or belief with unusual intensity, often marked by tight control over its members' lives and loyalty.

from From Latin 'cultus,' meaning worship or care, itself from 'colere,' to cultivate or tend — the same root that gives us 'cultivate' and 'culture.' Originally the word was neutral, just meaning devotional practice or reverence (as in 'the cult of a saint'). It curdled into its sinister modern sense mainly in the 20th century, as the word narrowed to mean fringe, high-control groups built around a charismatic leader — the worship surviving, the respectability gone.