英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

cult (n.)[cult 词源字典]: 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]
[cult etymology, cult origin, 英语词源]
Cyprian (adj.): 1620s, "of Cyprus," from Latin Cyprianus, from Cyprius, from Greek Kyprios (see Cyprus). The island was famous in ancient times as the birthplace of Aphrodite and for erotic worship rituals offered to her there; hence Cyprian meant "licentious, lewd," the earliest attested sense in English (1590s) and was applied 18c.-19c. to prostitutes.
frankincense (n.): aromatic gum resin from a certain type of tree, used anciently as incense and in religious rituals, late 14c., apparently from Old French franc encense, from franc "noble, true" (see frank (adj.)), in this case probably signifying "pure" or "of the highest quality," + encens "incense" (see incense (n.)).
ritualistic (adj.): 1844, from ritualist "one versed in or devoted to rituals" (1650s; see ritual) + -ic. Related: Ritualism (1838).
sepulchre (n.): also sepulcher, c. 1200, "tomb, burial place," especially the cave where Jesus was buried outside Jerusalem (Holy Sepulcher or Saint Sepulcher), from Old French sepulcre "tomb; the Holy Sepulchre" (11c.), from Latin sepulcrum "grave, tomb, place where a corpse is buried," from root of sepelire "to bury, embalm," originally "to perform rituals on a corpse," from PIE *sep-el-yo-, suffixed form of root *sep- (2) "to handle (skillfully), to hold (reverently);" cognates: Sanskrit saparyati "honors." No reason for the -ch- spelling, which dates to 13c. Whited sepulchre "hypocrite" is from Matt. xxiii.27.