SECT  , a

body of persons holding distinctive or separate doctrines or opinions, especially in matters of religion; thus there are various sects among the Jews, the Mahommedans, and the Buddhists, &c . In the Christian Church it has usually a hostile or depreciatory sense and is applied, like " sectary," to all religious bodies outside the one to which the user of the term belongs . The latter use has been influenced by the false etymology which makes the word mean " cut off " (Lat. secare, to cut) . The derivation has been long a matter of dispute . The Latin secta was used in classical Latin first of a way, a trodden or beaten path ; it seems to be derived from secare, to cut, cf. the phrase secare viam, to travel, take one's way, Gr. r zvecv bIbv . From the phrase sec/am sequi, to follow in the footsteps of any one, the word came to mean a party, following, faction . Another transferred sense is a manner or mode of life, so hanc sectam rationemque vitae . . . secuti sumus (Cie . Gael . 17, 40) . It was also the regular word for a school of philosophy and so translates alpeats, lit. choice (alpeIaBac,to choose), from which is derived " heresy " (q.v.) . The Vulgate (N.T.) translates aipeocs sometimes by secta, sometimes by haeresis .

In Med . Lat., besides these uses we find secta meaning a suit at

law, a suit of clothes, and a following or suite . These meanings point to the derivation of secta adopted by Skeat (Etym . Diet., 1910) ; which connects the word with sequi, to follow . Whichever derivation is accepted a " sect " does not mean a part " cut off " from the church .