illuminatin.
/ɪl(j)uːmɪˈneɪtʌɪ//ɪluːmɪˈnɑːtiː/ With plural agreement. A name assumed by or applied to various societies or sects because of their claim to special enlightenment in religious, or (later) intellectual, matters.
a. Applied to a sect of Spanish heretics which existed in the 16th cent. under the name Alumbrados or ‘enlightened’; subsequently, to a similar but obscure sect of Familists which arose in France in Louis XIII's reign.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > sect > Christianity > other sects and movements > Illuminati (Spanish) > [noun]
illuminati1599
Alumbrado1749
Illuminé1794
1599 E. Sandys Europæ Speculum (1632) 166 An other pestilent Sect there was not long since of the Illuminati in Aragon.
1652 R. Boreman Country-mans Catech. ii. 5 The Illuminatoes of the times, the Anabaptists.
1686 tr. D. Bouhours Life St. Ignatius ii. 77 The Inquisitors..were induced to believe, that..the Person..might either be an Illuminato or a Lutheran.
1749 G. Lavington Enthusiasm Methodists & Papists: Pt. II 154 The Alumbrado's or Illuminati of Spain.
b. Used to render German Illuminaten, the name of a celebrated secret society, founded at Ingolstadt in Bavaria, in 1776, by Professor Adam Weishaupt, holding deistic and republican principles, and having an organization akin to freemasonry; hence applied to other thinkers regarded as atheistic or free-thinking, e.g. the French Encyclopædists.
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society > society and the community > social relations > an association, society, or organization > secret society > [noun] > organizations similar to masons
illuminati1797
Good Templary1872
illuminate1906
society > faith > sect > Christianity > other sects and movements > Illuminati (Bavarian) > [noun]
illuminated1686
illuminati1797
illuminate1906
1797 J. Robison (title) Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments of Europe, carried on in the secret meetings of Freemasons, Illuminati, and Reading Societies.
1798 G. Washington Let. in Writings (1893) XIV. 119 The doctrines of the Illuminati and principles of Jacobinism.
1802 Kett Elem. Gen. Knowl. 71 The Freethinkers of England, the Philosophists of France, and the Illuminati of Germany.
c. gen. Persons affecting or claiming to possess special knowledge or enlightenment on any subject: often used satirically.
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the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > intellectual superiority > [noun] > intellectual person > collectively
intellect1602
illuminati1816
intellectual elite1830
intelligentsia1883
high-browed1908
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > scholarly knowledge, erudition > learned person, scholar > [noun] > collectively > claiming enlightenment
Aufklärer1801
illuminati1816
1816 T. L. Peacock Headlong Hall i. 7 The conversation among these illuminati soon became animated.
1846 H. Rogers Ess. I. iv. 157 What was dark to himself was happily quite clear to these illuminati [the alchemists].
1850 M. Fuller Life Without (1860) 41 Wilhelm is deemed worthy of admission to the society of the Illuminati, that is, those who have pierced the secret of life, and know what it is to be and to do.
a1878 G. G. Scott Recoll. (1879) iii. 111 All thanks and honour..to the older Pugin, however much our illuminati may sneer.
1887 Contemp. Rev. Apr. 592 An illuminato like Katkoff may write as if Russia was invincible; practical men know better.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1899; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
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