arcanity

plural arcanities

1. uncountableThe quality of being arcane.

   Arcanity, if there is such a noun, is not a deliberate concealment.

   1973, Ivor Brown, Words on the Level, The Bodley Head, →ISBN, page 21

   5 more examples

   Whatever physician has not this element of fire in its arcanity—if I may coin that word—cannot boast that he is a true and tried physician.

   1894, Arthur Edward Waite, editor, The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus Bombast, of Hohenheim, Called Paracelsus the Great, volume I (Hermetic Chemistry), London: James Elliott and Co., page 271

   Length, arcanity and just plain dullness of some of the festival fare of foreign films certainly provide some cerebral exercise for audiences.

   1974 October 14, Harry Themal, “N.Y. Film Festival blend creates mecca”, in The Morning News, volume 186, number 90, Wilmington, Del., page 16

   If thou’rt puzzled, go anywhere, / Seek priests or prophets, doctors for the brain, / I venture none of them can e’er explain / This love’s arcanity: like holy God / That’s three in one, ’t is more than something odd.

   1975, CEA Critic, page 17

   As moderns, we have a highly developed sense of the futility, even more, of the immorality of any effort to rehabilitate the pre-Enlightenment outlook. We cannot but reject at heart its capricous mysticism, its violence, its arcanity. Our sympathy with science is thus well-founded in a belief in our humanity and it is this which discourages us from embarking upon any serious revolt.

   1977, Dionysius, page 175

   Here, purged of much of its arcanity and rendered in a native tradition of muckraking or investigative journalism, is the critique of Marcuse’s work in the 1960s.

   1986, Paul F. Kress, “Social Critique”, in John S. Nelson, editor, Tradition, Interpretation, and Science: Political Theory in the American Academy, State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 203

   Synonyms: arcaneness, esotericism

2. countableSomething that is arcane.

   She has wisely limited her treatment to the British Isles, which contain a sufficient variety of supernatural beings to satisfy the most compulsive collector of arcanities.

   1977, New Age, page 77

   5 more examples

   On Wednesday evening, February 5, the Epsilon Pi secret society of ’93 had an initiation and spread in south University hall. Two candidates were admitted to the arcanities.

   1890 February 15, The Brunonian, volume XXIII, number 12, Providence, R.I.: Brown University, page 166

   Let us look also at the works of Cavaliere Cristoforo Gluck, lately in the service of the Imperial Court, whose most penetrating vast genius and creative talent, is not only in possession of the most profound arcanities and recondite illuminations of philosophy and other sciences, but has developed a sense of the immensity thereof, from which rare, noble, interesting and sublime music was born, particularly French, of which he was the reformer, or, better, the autocrat.

   1967, Practical Reflections on Figured Singing, Pro Musica Press, page 130

   I do not shy from the essentially materialistic, often hypocritical aspects of the executive-headhunting profession, but I want to make clear that as much as we corporate consultants initiate circumlocutious arcanities and the simulacra of expertise rather than its substance, we are forced into so doing by a business ethic that often can swallow nothing less familiar: the truth, for instance.

   1973, Allan J. Cox, Confessions of a Corporate Headhunter, New York, N.Y.: Trident Press, →ISBN, pages 25–26

   Thirdly, his style should be filled with literary allusions and arcanities: 'refugiendum est ab omni verborum, ut ita dicam, vilitate et sunendae voces a plebe semotae, ut fiat "odi profanum vulgus et arceo"' (118.4).

   1974, Ralph W. Moss, Characterization in Petronius, Stanford University, page 109

   Windber has a chance to tie Westmont for the Mountain Conference title with a victory, but because of the arcanities in the point system used to rate the schools, Westmont will win the title outright if Cambria Heights beats Northern Cambria tonight, even though neither of those teams is going anywhere.

   1974 November 8, Jeff Landaw, “Final Local Grid Picks: Panthers, Ramblers”, in Somerset Daily American, volume 46, number 111, page 13

   Synonyms: esoterica, esoteric