iconoclast definition | Dictionary.com

i⋅con⋅o⋅clast

[ahy-kon-uh-klast]

–noun

1.	a breaker or destroyer of images, esp. those set up for religious veneration.

2.	a person who attacks cherished beliefs, traditional institutions, etc., as being based on error or superstition.

Origin:
1590–1600; < ML īconoclastēs < MGk eikonoklástēs, equiv. to Gk eikono- icono- + -klastēs breaker, equiv. to klas- (var. s. of klân to break) + -tēs agent n. suffix

Related forms:

i⋅con⋅o⋅clas⋅tic, adjective

i⋅con⋅o⋅clas⋅ti⋅cal⋅ly, adverb

Synonyms:
2. nonconformist, rebel, dissenter, radical.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To iconoclast

i·con·o·clast (ī-kŏn'ə-klāst')

One who attacks and seeks to overthrow traditional or popular ideas or institutions.
One who destroys sacred religious images.

[French iconoclaste, from Medieval Greek eikonoklastēs, smasher of religious images : eikono-, icono- + Greek -klastēs, breaker (from Greek klān, klas-, to break).]
i·con'o·clas'tic adj., i·con'o·clas'ti·cal·ly adv.

Word History: An iconoclast can be unpleasant company, but at least the modern iconoclast only attacks such things as ideas and institutions. The original iconoclasts destroyed countless works of art. Eikonoklastēs, the ancestor of our word, was first formed in Medieval Greek from the elements eikōn, "image, likeness," and -klastēs, "breaker," from klān, "to break." The images referred to by the word are religious images, which were the subject of controversy among Christians of the Byzantine Empire in the 8th and 9th centuries, when iconoclasm was at its height. In addition to destroying many sculptures and paintings, those opposed to images attempted to have them barred from display and veneration. During the Protestant Reformation images in churches were again felt to be idolatrous and were once more banned and destroyed. It is around this time that iconoclast, the descendant of the Greek word, is first recorded in English (1641), with reference to the Byzantine iconoclasts. In the 19th century iconoclast took on the secular sense that it has today, as in "Kant was the great iconoclast" (James Martineau).

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Iconoclast

I*con"o*clast\, n. [Gr. e'ikw`n image + ? to break: cf. F. iconoclaste.]

1. A breaker or destroyer of images or idols; a determined enemy of idol worship.

2. One who exposes or destroys impositions or shams; one who attacks cherished beliefs; a radical.

iconoclast

"breaker or destroyer of images," 1596, from Fr. iconoclaste, from M.L. iconoclastes, from Late Gk. eikonoklastes, from eikon (gen. eikonos) "image" + klastes "breaker," from klas- pt. stem of klan "to break." Originally those in the Eastern Church in 8c. and 9c. whose mobs of followers destroyed icons and other religious objects on the grounds that they were idols. Applied to 16c.-17c. Protestants in Netherlands who vandalized former Catholic churches on similar grounds. Extended sense of "one who attacks orthodox beliefs or institutions" is first attested 1842. Iconoclasm in this sense is from 1858.

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