• mystagogue •
Pronunciation: mis-tê-gahg • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. Someone who prepares initiates for the mysteries of a secret organization. 2. Someone who propagates mystical doctrines.
Notes: This rather rare word comes with an extendable adjective, mystagogic(al). The extension must be used for the adverb mystagogically even though we seldom hear it. The activity of a mystagogue may be called mystagogy or mystagoguery.
In Play: The meaning closest to home is the first above: "Horatio was the mystagogue for the local Masons for decades until one day he mysteriously disappeared." However, the second sense above is available for wider usage: "My parents are real mystagogues; they tell me what to do and don't do, but not why they want me to do what they tell me."
Word History: Today's Good Word was taken from Latin mystagogus, borrowed from Greek mystagogos "guide to the mysteries", a compound comprising mystes "initiate to the mysteries" + ag(ein) "to lead, guide" + -ogue, a personal noun suffix. Mystes is the personal noun from myein "to close, shut (the mouth, eyes)", made from PIE meu- "to murmur, sound made with closed lips", source also of Latin mutus "dumb, mute", Lithuanian murmėti "to mumble", Latvian muldēt "to mumble", English mum, mumble, and murmur, German murmeln "to murmur, mumble", Dutch mompelen "to murmur, mumble", Norwegian and Danish mumle "to mumble". (Now let's thank Luciano Eduardo de Oliveira, veteran editor of this series and grandmaster among our contributors for remarkable Good Words like today's.)
P.S. - Register for the Daily Good Word E-Mail! - You can get our daily Good Word sent directly to you via e-mail in either HTML or Text format. Go to our Registration Page to sign up today!
