different between mystery vs mythology

English

Etymology

From Middle English mysterie, from Anglo-Norman misterie (Old French mistere), from Latin mysterium, from Ancient Greek ????????? (must?rion, “a mystery, a secret, a secret rite”), from ?????? (múst?s, “initiated one”), from ???? (mué?, “I initiate”), from ??? (mú?, “I shut”). Displaced native Old English ?er?ne.

Pronunciation

• enPR: m?s?t?r?, m?s?tr?, IPA^(key): /?m?st??i/, /?m?st?i/
• Hyphenation: mys?te?ry, myst?ery

Noun

mystery (countable and uncountable, plural mysteries)

1. Something secret or unexplainable; an unknown. [From XIV century.]
2. Someone or something with an obscure or puzzling nature.
3. (obsolete) A secret or mystical meaning. [From XIV century.]
   • 1567, Matteo Bandello, Certain Tragical Discourses of Bandello, tr. Geffraie Fenton:

     ...and, not knowing the meaning or misterie of her pollicie, forgat no termes of reproche or rigorous rebuke against his chast doughter.

4. A religious truth not understandable by the application of human reason alone (without divine aid). [From XIV century.]
   • 1744 (first printed), Jonathan Swift, A Sermon on the Trinity

     If God should please to reveal unto us this great mystery of the Trinity, or some other mysteries in our holy religion, we should not be able to understand them, unless he would bestow on us some new faculties of the mind.

5. (archaic outside Eastern Orthodoxy) A sacrament. [From XV century.]
   • 1809, Sir Robert Ker Porter, Travelling Sketches in Russia and Sweden: During the Years 1805, 1806, 1807, 1808:

     There are seven mysteries, or sacraments, in the Greek church, viz. baptism, the chrism (a rite peculiar to this church), the eucharist, confession, ordination, marriage, and the holy oil.

6. (chiefly in the plural) A secret religious celebration, admission to which was usually through initiation. [From XV century.]
7. (Catholicism) A particular event or series of events in the life of Christ. [From XVII century.]

8. A craft, art or trade; specifically a guild of craftsmen.
   • 1776, Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

     The trades, the crafts, the mysteries, would all be losers.

Synonyms

• roun (obsolete)

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

References

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Anglo-Norman misterie.

Noun

mystery

1. Alternative form of mysterie (“mystery”)

Etymology 2

From Old French mistere.

Noun

mystery

1. Alternative form of mysterie (“duty”)

English

Etymology

First attested as Middle English [Term?] in 1412. From Middle French mythologie, from Latin mythologia, from Ancient Greek ????????? (muthología, “legend”) ????????? (muthologé?, “I tell tales”), from ????????? (muthológos, “legend”), from ????? (mûthos, “story”) + ???? (lég?, “I say”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: m?thôlôj?, IPA^(key): /m????l?d?i/
• (US) IPA^(key): /m????l?d?i/
• Rhymes: -?l?d?i

Noun

mythology (countable and uncountable, plural mythologies)

1. (countable and uncountable) The collection of myths of a people, concerning the origin of the people, history, deities, ancestors and heroes.
2. (countable and uncountable) A similar body of myths concerning an event, person or institution.
   • 2003, Peter Utgaard, Remembering & Forgetting Nazism: Education, National Identity, and the Victim Myth in Postwar Austria, Berghahn Books, ?ISBN, page x:

     This program to distinguish Austria from Germany was important to building a new Austria, but it also indirectly contributed to victim mythology by implying that participation in the Nazi war of conquest was antithetical to Austrian identity.

3. (countable and uncountable) Pervasive elements of a fictional universe that resemble a mythological universe.
   • 2000 April 28, Caryn James (?), As Scheherazade Was Saying . . ., in The New York Times, page E31, reproduced in The New York Times Television Reviews 2000, Routledge (2001), ?ISBN, page 198:

     This tongue-in-cheek episode is especially fun for people who don’t take their “X-Files” mythology seriously.

4. (uncountable) The systematic collection and study of myths.

Synonyms

• godlore

Derived terms

• mythological
• mythologist

Translations

See also

• Christian mythology on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Egyptian mythology on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Greek mythology on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Japanese mythology on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Norse mythology on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Roman mythology on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Indian mythology on Wikipedia.Wikipedia