exotic

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French exotique, from Latin exōticus, from Ancient Greek ἐξωτικός (exōtikós, “foreign”, literally “from the outside”), from ἐξω- (exō-, “outside”), from ἐξ (ex, “out of”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪɡˈzɒtɪk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪɡˈzɑtɪk/
• Rhymes: -ɒtɪk

Adjective

exotic (comparative more exotic, superlative most exotic)

1. Foreign, especially in an exciting way.

   an exotic appearance

   • John Evelyn (1620-1706)

     Nothing was so splendid and exotic as the ambassador.

   • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, in The Tremarn Case‎:

     “Two or three months more went by ; the public were eagerly awaiting the arrival of this semi-exotic claimant to an English peerage, and sensations, surpassing those of the Tichbourne case, were looked forward to with palpitating interest. […]”

   • 2013 June 29, “Travels and travails”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 55:

     Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.

2. Non-native to the ecosystem.
3. (finance) Being or relating to an option with features that make it more complex than commonly traded options.

Noun

exotic (plural exotics)

1. (biology) An organism that is exotic to an environment.
2. An exotic dancer; a stripteaser.
3. (physics) Any exotic particle.

   Glueballs, theoretical particles composed only of gluons, are exotics.

Further reading

• Exotic on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Exotic in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

Anagrams

• coxite

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /eɡˈzo.tik/

Adjective

exotic m, n (feminine singular exotică, masculine plural exotici, feminine and neuter plural exotice)

1. exotic