different between mystery vs oystery

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

oyster +? -y

Noun

oystery (plural oysteries)

1. (possibly dated) A fishery for oysters; a place where oysters are kept and grown.

Adjective

oystery (comparative more oystery, superlative most oystery)

1. Resembling an oyster in some way, especially in color or scent.
   • 2005, Davitt Sigerson, Faithful, page 15:

     It strolls along her oystery lips, dipping in and pulling out. Now it moves to the back, and just rests its weight against her, like she's the inkpad for his fingerprint. it turns a little to nestle in, sealing against her.

   • 2009, John Updike, The Afterlife: And Other Stories:
   • […] chairs—their horsehair cushions holding that musty, oystery scent country parlors have—there was fat modern furniture in pastel shades surrounding a glass table supported on wrought-iron scrolls.
   • 2010, Reggie Nadelson, Bloody London, page 215:

     A faint oystery light smudged the November sky outside the window.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:oystery.