anathema

noun anath·e·ma \ ə-ˈna-thə-mə \

|Updated on: 6 Aug 2018

Examples: anathema in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Word History of anathema

Definition of anathema

1 a : one that is cursed by ecclesiastical authority

b : someone or something intensely disliked or loathed —usually used as a predicate nominative

… this notion was anathema to most of his countrymen.
—Stephen Jay Gould

2 a : a ban or curse solemnly pronounced by ecclesiastical authority and accompanied by excommunication

b : the denunciation of something as accursed

c : a vigorous denunciation : curse

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Examples of anathema in a Sentence

Maugham was not only prolific but also a best-seller, though snobs dismissed his work as middlebrow (a category that few people worry about in our day but that once was anathema). —Edmund White, New York Review of Books, 12 Feb. 2009
While everything pointed to an immense flood, Bretz knew such a notion would be anathema to his fellow geologists. In part that was because the quantity of water needed for such a flood would exceed the flow of all the world's modern rivers combined. —Richard Lovett, New Scientist, 21-27 Apr. 2007
Big Jeff was devoted to Purcell. He haunted his room and patiently endured his abuse just to sit in the corner and watch him shave or do push-ups or dress for dinner, and listen to him pronounce his opinions and anathemas. —Tobias Wolff, Old School, 2003
For all the artistic wonders it has preserved, the Holy Mountain is not a museum, and the idea of playing host to sightseers is anathema to the monks. Male visitors of all faiths are welcome, but they come as pilgrims, not tourists, and only 110 "residence permits" are issued each day by patristic officials in Ouranoupolis. —Nicholas Basbanes, Smithsonian, August 1999
a politician who is anathema to conservatives
ideas that are an anathema to me

Recent Examples of anathema from the Web

Of course, Apple still considers touchscreens to be anathema on laptops.

— dieter bohn, The Verge, "Apple’s new MacBook Pros have the latest Intel processors and quieter keyboards," 12 July 2018
That may seem like an anathema to the ancient institution of the British monarchy but the Palace has become a keen marketer of its most popular members, the younger generation of royals.

— marcia moody, Town & Country, "How Meghan Markle's First Year as a Royal Will Compare with Kate Middleton’s," 27 June 2018
The nine bodies were unceremoniously dumped into a burial pit, tangled in a jumble of limbs anathema to the precise arrangements typically seen in Early Neolithic graves.

— meilan solly, Smithsonian, "7,000-Year-Old German Grave Shows New Side of Neolithic Brutality," 11 July 2018
The midterm election victories for Republicans in 2014 seemed to prove that engaging on any sort of compromise deal on immigration was totally unnecessary and, in fact, was anathema to the desires of the party's base.

— chris cillizza, CNN, "The biggest political story no one is talking about," 17 May 2018
These views, though increasingly unpopular with criminal justice policymakers, are not anathema to the current administration.

— matt ford, The New Republic, "The Man Who Hates Criminal-Justice Reform," 7 May 2018
In that meeting, Trump called for comprehensive legislation that would, among other things, expand background checks to firearms purchased at gun shows and on the internet — a measure favored by Democrats but anathema to the NRA.

— Anchorage Daily News, "NRA, after meeting with Trump, suggests he may retreat from gun control," 2 Mar. 2018
For example, his past support for some gun-control measures landed him a 2006 endorsement from the The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, anathema to pro-gun Republican primary voters and groups like the NRA.

— andrew j. tobias, cleveland.com, "Mary Taylor puts it all on the line while seeking underdog victory in Republican governor primary," 5 Feb. 2018
Do the powers that be in the World Cup know that flopping and faking injuries is anathema to success in sports in the U.S.?

— latimes.com, "Letters: LeBron becoming the next Kobe might not be a good thing," 22 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'anathema.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Word History of anathema

The Greek root of anathema originally meant simply “a thing devoted” or “an offering,” and in the Old Testament it could refer to either revered objects or objects representing destruction brought about in the name of the Lord, such as the weapons of an enemy. Since the enemy’s objects therefore became symbols of what was reviled or unholy, the neutral meaning of “a thing devoted” became “a thing devoted to evil” or “curse.”

In Latin, it could refer to both an excommunication and the person who has been excommunicated.

In the early Church, anathema was used interchangeably with excommunication and to refer to unrepentant heretics. It then came to mean the severest form of excommunication in official church writings. When the authority of Rome was split in the Great Schism between Eastern and Western churches in 1054, an anathema was issued by Rome against the Eastern Patriarch who then issued another one against the cardinal who delivered it.

The History of anathema Is Contradictory

Historically, anathema can be considered a one-word oxymoron. When it first appeared in English in 1526, it was used to refer to something accursed. Shortly thereafter, however, people also began to use it to refer to something consecrated to divine use—generally a good thing. Why the contradiction? Anathema comes from Greek, where it initially meant "anything devoted" and later "anything devoted to evil." The "consecrated to divine use" sense of anathema comes from that earlier Greek use but is not widely used today.

Origin and Etymology of anathema

Late Latin anathemat-, anathema, from Greek, thing devoted to evil, curse, from anatithenai to set up, dedicate, from ana- + tithenai to place, set — more at do

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1582

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

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