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exoticism

[ig-zot-uh-siz-uhm]

Origin

noun

tendency to adopt what is exotic.

exotic quality or character.

anything exotic, as a foreign word or idiom.

Also, ex·o·tism

[eg-zuh-tiz-uhm, ek-suh-] .

Origin:
1820–30; exotic + -ism

Related forms

ex·ot·i·cist, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Exoticism is always a great word to know.

So is ninnyhammer. Does it mean:

an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.

a fool or simpleton; ninny.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

exotic (ɪɡˈzɒtɪk)

—*adj*
1.	originating in a foreign country, esp one in the tropics; not native: an exotic plant
2.	having a strange or bizarre allure, beauty, or quality
3.	(NZ) (of trees, esp pine trees) native to the northern hemisphere but cultivated in New Zealand: an exotic forest
4.	of or relating to striptease

—n
5.	an exotic person or thing

[C16: from Latin exōticus, from Greek exōtikos foreign, from exō outside]

ex'otically

—*adv*

ex'oticism

—n

ex'oticness

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

exoticism

1827, from exotic + -ism.

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"Good writing is always a breaking of the soil, clearing away prejudices, pulling up of sour weeds of crooked thinking, stripping the turf so as to get at what is fertile beneath. It would be amusing to carry the simile further. Those bulbs that flower in the sand and wither! The gay fiction annual that has to be planted again every year! Those experimental plants from Russia, France, and Greenwich Village that are always getting winter killed—confound 'em!—is it worth while planting them again? The stocky perennial that keeps coming up and coming up—so easy to grow and so ugly. Scarlet sage that gives a touch of fiery sin to the edge of the suburbanite's concrete walk! And then the good flowers—as honest as they are beautiful! The well-ordered gar den! The climbing rose that escapes and is the most beautiful of all!"

-Henry Seidel Canby

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exoticism

ex·ot·i·cism