Vocabulary
Several misleading false cognates (faux amis) exist in French and English word definitions, which can confuse discussions of religion and cults:
- The French noun culte means any "(religious) worship", or, in a legal context, "religion" taken in a broad sense. The phrase association cultuelle (quite distinct from association culturelle, association promoting culture) thus refers to an organisation that supports religious worship, not to a "cult" in the often derogatory sense found in the English language.
- The French noun secte can have the meaning of the English "sect". However, in general parlance it has the derogatory meaning of the English usage of the word "cult".
- The adjective sectaire ("sectarian") almost always has a derogatory meaning: it designates people or institutions with a narrow-minded outlook on the world, who exclude other points of view.
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Famous quotes containing the word vocabulary:
“Institutional psychiatry is a continuation of the Inquisition. All that has really changed is the vocabulary and the social style. The vocabulary conforms to the intellectual expectations of our age: it is a pseudo-medical jargon that parodies the concepts of science. The social style conforms to the political expectations of our age: it is a pseudo-liberal social movement that parodies the ideals of freedom and rationality.”
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“One forgets words as one forgets names. One’s vocabulary needs constant fertilizing or it will die.”
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“My vocabulary dwells deep in my mind and needs paper to wriggle out into the physical zone. Spontaneous eloquence seems to me a miracle. I have rewritten—often several times—every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)