cult: [17] The Indo-European base *quel-,* quoldenoted primarily ‘move around, turn’ (it is the source of English cycle and wheel). By metaphorical extension it came to signify ‘be busy’, which later branched out in two semantic directions: ‘inhabiting a place’ and ‘making a wild place suitable for crops’. These are both channelled into Latin colere, which meant ‘inhabit’, ‘cultivate’, and also ‘worship’.
The notion of ‘inhabiting’ is reflected in its descendant colony, but its past participial stem cult- has bequeathed us other aspects of its meaning. ‘Worship’ is represented by cult, acquired via French culte or directly from Latin cultus. ‘Developing the land’ appears in cultivate [17], from the medieval Latin derivative cultivāre, and by metaphorical extension in culture [15], from French culture, which originally meant ‘piece of tilled land’. => colony, cultivate, culture, cycle, wheel
cult (n.)
1610s, "worship," also "a particular form of worship," from French culte (17c.), from Latin cultus "care, labor; cultivation, culture; worship, reverence," originally "tended, cultivated," past participle of colere "to till" (see colony). Rare after 17c.; revived mid-19c. with reference to ancient or primitive rituals. Meaning "a devotion to a person or thing" is from 1829.
Cult. An organized group of people, religious or not, with whom you disagree. [Rawson]
实用例句
1. The teenager may have been abducted by a religious cult.
这个少年可能被一个异教组织绑架了。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Ludlam was responsible for making Ridiculous Theatre something of a cult.
荒诞派戏剧的风靡要归功于勒德拉姆。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Since her death, she has become a cult figure.
她死后成了部分人狂热崇拜的偶像。
来自柯林斯例句
4. Anybody interested in pop culture at all should buy "Pure Cult".
任何对流行文化有一点兴趣的人都应该买《完全崇拜》这张专辑。
来自柯林斯例句
5. The cult of Isis was carried from Egypt into Greece and Rome.
