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]
例文
1. The teenager may have been abducted by a religious cult .
この少年は異教組織に誘拐された可能性がある。
2.Ludlam was responsible for Making Ridiculousシアターsomething of a cult .
荒唐無稽派演劇の風靡はラドラムのおかげだ。
3.Since her death,she has become a cult figure.
彼女は死後、一部の人々が熱狂的に崇拝していたアイドルになった。
4.Anybody interested in pop culture at all should buy "Pure Cult ".
流行文化に少しでも興味がある人は、「完全崇拝」というアルバムを買うべきだ。The cult of Isis was carried from Egypt into Greece and Rome.