Esoteric means understood only by a small circle of initiates. Esoteric knowledge, an esoteric debate, esoteric interests.
In ordinary use it just means obscure, and often with a shrug. The strict sense is sharper: esoteric teaching was meant for the inner circle only, as against exoteric teaching given out to everybody.
1adjectiveesotericUnderstood only by a small circle of initiates.
“The professor's lecture was full of esoteric terms that only specialists understood.”
esoteric is a quality.
Greek esoterikos means belonging to an inner circle, from eso, within.
Ancient Greek
ἐσωτερικός — belonging to an inner circle
English, today
esoteric
Built from
Ancient Greek ἐσωτερικός (“belonging to an inner circle”), from ἐσωτέρω (“further inside”), comparative of ἔσω (“within”), from ἐς, εἰς (“into”) (the term esoteric referred originally to the secret teachings of Greek philosophers, versus public or exoteric ones).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA