eleutheri

English

Etymology

From Eleutheria.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛˈljuːθəˌɹaɪ/

Noun

eleutheri pl (plural only)

1. (literature) A secret society, usually 19th century and sinister.
   • 1813, Thomas Jefferson Hogg, The Memoirs of Prince Alexy Haimatoff, London: T. Hookham, jun., and E.T. Hookham, pages 178-79:

     He addressed himself in the same language to the whole company, and […] asked them, if they had any objection to my being initiated into the mysteries of the Eleutheri.

   • 1886 [1814], Professor E. Dowden, edited by Thomas J. Wise, Some Early Writings of Shelley, London: Reeves and Turner, pages 49-50:

     In his account of the Society of the Eleutheri, Hogg seems to be indulging in a bad dream after having read a book which was always perused with interest by Shelley — Barruel's "Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire du Jacobinisme" — let the reader look into the chapters on Spartacus Weishaupt, the founder of Illuminism, and he will see grounds for this conjecture[.]

Usage notes

First coined in 1813 by Thomas Jefferson Hogg in The Memoirs of Prince Alexy Haimatoff.

See also

• Illuminati