egregore means an angelic being from the Book of Enoch. It carries an Arena rating of 1399, earned across 9 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, egregore ranks #1,747 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #2,361 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #2,558 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #2,586 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words.
egregore is pronounced /ˈɛɡɹɪɡɔɹ/.
Why “egregore” is a great word
An autonomous psychic entity, often considered angelic or demonic, that is composed of and influences the thoughts and energies of a group of people. From French égrégore ("spirit of a group"), from Ancient Greek ἐγρήγορος (egrēgoros, "wakeful, watcher"), a term used for angels in the Book of Enoch. Unlike a collective unconscious, a universal and impersonal reservoir of archetypes, or a meme, a replicating unit of cultural information, an egregore is a specific, conscious accretion of group belief that gains a phantom autonomy. It is the palpable esprit de corps binding a military unit, the brooding temperament that haunts a long-inhabited house, and the fervent, living ideology that outlives its founders—the invisible architecture of human attention given weight and will, watching back at those who made it.
Etymology
From French égrégore (“spirit of a group”), from the Ancient Greek substantive of ἐγρήγορος (egrḗgoros, “wakeful”) meaning watcher, angel in the Book of Enoch.
noun
- An angelic being from the Book of Enoch.e.g.“When men multiplied, says the author, they had daughters of an exquisite beauty, so amiable that the Egregores, or the guardian Angels, conceived a violent passion for them.” — 1815, Robert Mayo, A New System of Mythology:
- An autonomous psychic entity that is composed of, and influences, the thoughts of a group of people.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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