There are some words in our language that we rarely use. Esoteric words are among them. They are words that are understood by few, and used by even fewer. The adjective stems from the last centuries, where religious rites deliberately used words meant to be understood by their inner circle. An example of this is chiasmus in ancient Israel. It is a type of poetic writing, highly literary, where the writer penned verses that mirrored one another in a couplet, then repeated in reverse order so that the end mirrors the beginning. It conveys a central message in the middle of the poem, chapter, or even book. Isaiah, the Old Testament prophet, was a master of chiastic verse. In today’s language, esotericism continues and goes beyond the small groups it was meant to encircle. Many of these definitions are scientific or medical words, such as hyperemerisis gravidarium – excessive morning sickness that affects some women during pregnancy, or hyponatremia – a toxicity of consumed water by drinki...
