anathema - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

a·nath·e·ma

Audio Help [uh-nath-uh-muh] Pronunciation Key

–noun, plural -mas.

1.	a person or thing detested or loathed: That subject is anathema to him.

2.	a person or thing accursed or consigned to damnation or destruction.

3.	a formal ecclesiastical curse involving excommunication.

4.	any imprecation of divine punishment.

5.	a curse; execration.

[Origin: 1520–30; < L < Gk: a thing accursed, devoted to evil, orig. devoted, equiv. to ana(ti)thé(nai) to set up + -ma n. suffix

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
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anathema

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

a·nath·e·ma Audio Help (ə-nāth'ə-mə) Pronunciation Key
n. pl. a·nath·e·mas

A formal ecclesiastical ban, curse, or excommunication.
A vehement denunciation; a curse: "the sound of a witch's anathemas in some unknown tongue" (Nathaniel Hawthorne).
One that is cursed or damned.
One that is greatly reviled, loathed, or shunned: "Essentialism—a belief in natural, immutable sex differences—is anathema to postmodernists, for whom sexuality itself, along with gender, is a 'social construct'" (Wendy Kaminer).

[Late Latin anathema, doomed offering, accursed thing, from Greek, from anatithenai, anathe-, to dedicate : ana-, ana- + tithenai, to put; see dhē- in Indo-European roots.]

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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
anathema

1526, from L. anathema "an excommunicated person, the curse of excommunication," from Gk. anathema "a thing accursed," originally "a thing devoted," lit. "a thing set up (to the gods)," from ana- "up" + tithenai "to place," from PIE base *dhe- "to put, to do" (see factitious). Originally simply a votive offering, by the time it reached L. the meaning had progressed through "thing devoted to evil," to "thing accursed or damned." Later applied to persons and the Divine Curse. Anathema maranatha, taken as an intensified form, is a misreading of the Syriac maran etha "the Lord hath come," which follows anathema in I Cor. xvi.22, but is not connected with it.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

anathema
noun
1.	a detested person; "he is an anathema to me"
2.	a formal ecclesiastical curse accompanied by excommunication

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Anathema

A*nath"e*ma\, n.; pl. Anathemas. [L. anath?ma, fr. Gr. ? anything devoted, esp. to evil, a curse; also L. anath?ma, fr. Gr. ? a votive offering; all fr. ? to set up as a votive gift, dedicate; ? up + ? to set. See Thesis.]

1. A ban or curse pronounced with religious solemnity by ecclesiastical authority, and accompanied by excommunication. Hence: Denunciation of anything as accursed.

[They] denounce anathemas against unbelievers. --Priestley.

2. An imprecation; a curse; a malediction.

Finally she fled to London followed by the anathemas of both [families]. --Thackeray.

3. Any person or thing anathematized, or cursed by ecclesiastical authority.

The Jewish nation were an anathema destined to destruction. St. Paul . . . says he could wish, to save them from it, to become an anathema, and be destroyed himself. --Locke.

Anathema Maranatha(see --1 Cor. xvi. 22), an expression commonly considered as a highly intensified form of anathema. Maran atha is now considered as a separate sentence, meaning, "Our Lord cometh."

Dictionary.com Word of the Day Archive - Cite This Source - Share This

anathema

anathema was Word of the Day on May 22, 2000.

Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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