A palavra "cultist" não era comum na época . O período produtivo de Lovecraft foi de 1908 a 1936. No corpus do livro do Google, a palavra “cultista” só aparece por volta da década de 1920, e novamente só se torna popular mais tarde; consulte aqui . Deve ter parecido um neologismo naquela época, e todos nós sabemos como Lovecraft gostava de arcaísmos e não de novidades. Compare com " adorador ".
Por que as pessoas hoje usam a palavra para descrever seus adoradores - bem, agora nós temos a palavra em uso geral, e isso se encaixa. Afinal, um "cultista" é apenas alguém que pertence a um "culto", e um "culto" é:
n. 1. (offensive, derogatory) A group of people with a religious, philosophical or cultural identity sometimes viewed as a sect, often existing on the margins of society or exploitative towards its members. (Wiktionary)
Isso certamente poderia ser usado para descrever as seitas desejando o Caos Rastejante ou se curvando para o Sultão Louco Cego. Além do mais, embora a HPL não tenha usado a palavra mais nova “cultista”, ele usou a raiz mais antiga “culto” - 38 vezes, até mesmo, no colecionou ficção . A primeira vez que ele usou foi em The Hound (1922):
Alien it indeed was to all art and literature which sane and balanced readers know, but we recognised it as the thing hinted of in the forbidden Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred; the ghastly soul-symbol of the corpse-eating cult of inaccessible Leng, in Central Asia.
Algumas outras passagens interessantes incluem:
Os ratos nas paredes (1923):
Sir William, standing with his searchlight in the Roman ruin, translated aloud the most shocking ritual I have ever known; and told of the diet of the antediluvian cult which the priests of Cybele found and mingled with their own.
O Chamado de Cthulhu (1926):
The writing accompanying this oddity was, aside from a stack of press cuttings, in Professor Angell’s most recent hand; and made no pretence to literary style. What seemed to be the main document was headed “CTHULHU CULT” in characters painstakingly printed to avoid the erroneous reading of a word so unheard-of.
A sombra sobre Innsmouth (1931):
[…] and she assured me that the rumours of devil-worship were partly justified by a peculiar secret cult which had gained force there and engulfed all the orthodox churches.
It was called, she said, “The Esoteric Order of Dagon”…
A sombra fora do tempo (1934):
Some minds recalled more than others, and the chance joining of memories had at rare times brought hints of the forbidden past to future ages. There probably never was a time when groups or cults did not secretly cherish certain of these hints. In the Necronomicon the presence of such a cult among human beings was suggested—a cult that sometimes gave aid to minds voyaging down the aeons from the days of the Great Race. […]