Gnŏs'tic1, n.
(nŏs'tik), n. [Fr. gnostique, Lat. gnosticus, from Gr. γνωστικός, good at knowing, sagacious, a man that claims to have a deeper wisdom, from γιγνώσκειν, to know.] (Eccl. Hist.) One of the so-called philosophers that arose in the first ages of Christianity, who pretended that they had a true philosophical knowledge of the Christian religion. Their system was a fantastical combination of oriental theology and Greek philosophy with the doctrines of Christianity. They held that all natures, intelligible, intellectual, and material, are derived by successive emanations from the Deity. These emanations they called æons.