the.com/occult
Not evil — just hidden, which is scarier to people who hate not knowing things.
means Knowledge of things that are hidden or secret, especially supernatural forces not explained by ordinary science.
from From Latin occultus, 'hidden' or 'concealed,' the past participle of occulere, 'to cover over, conceal' — built from ob- ('over') plus a form related to celare, 'to hide' (the same root that gives us 'cell' and 'conceal'). It entered English in the 1500s simply meaning 'secret' or 'not disclosed,' used for eclipses or hidden causes in nature. Only later did it narrow to mean specifically hidden knowledge of magic and the supernatural — the word didn't start sinister, it just started private.
- literal meaning
- latin occultus just means hidden or secret
- same root
- shares roots with words like occlude
- scope creep
- once covered astronomy before science claimed it
- medical use
- doctors still say occult blood, meaning undetectable