anathema

play

noun anath·e·ma \ ə-ˈna-thə-mə \

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

See anathema defined for English-language learners

See anathema defined for kids

anathema was our Word of the Day on 08/11/2008. Hear the podcast!

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

Recently, Evers has been cooperating more visibly with Wisconsin’s school choice and private-school advocacy groups — outfits that are anathema to die-hard Democrats.

— erin richards, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "State superintendent Tony Evers mulls run against Walker," 7 July 2017
The massive stimulus over the past years, equal to more than 7 percent of gross domestic product both this year and last, has deepened the state’s grip on the economy, something of an anathema to Jensen’s party.

— sveinung sleire, Bloomberg.com, "After Beating the Oil Bust, Norway's Finance Chief Faces Voters," 2 July 2017
His desire to push the bill farther to the right and scrap some of Obamacare’s most popular features is anathema to Democrats.

— craig gilbert, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Ron Johnson assumes outspoken role in a health care debate that is hazardous for his party," 1 July 2017
Republicans worry Democrats will ultimately push for a single-payer system that is anathema to their limited-government, free-market driven ideology.

— heidi m. przybyla, USA TODAY, "Democrats to 'crank up the outrage' over Senate Republican health care bill over July 4 break," 28 June 2017
However, the subject is anathema to the government, which prefers to speak only of the Poles who risked their lives to save Jews, sparking some criticisms of historical whitewashing.

— vanessa gera, The Seattle Times, "Polish human rights official under fire for Holocaust remark," 23 June 2017
Journalists are sometime easily manipulated by intelligence sources (just ask former New York Times reporter Judith Miller), but wittingly working for the U.S. government, or any other, has become anathema.

— david a. graham, The Atlantic, "The Fall of a Foreign-Affairs Reporter," 21 June 2017
Republican strategists successfully convinced GOP voters that a vote for Ossoff was a vote for values anathema to their own.

— chris cillizza, CNN, "In Georgia, close isn't nearly good enough for Democrats," 20 June 2017
In the past, physical retail and all of its associated complications have seemed anathema to Bezos — expensive, inflexible obligations whose costs are difficult to defray by advances of technology.

— brad stone, The Seattle Times, "Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ grocery ‘Waterloo’ is now his biggest opportunity," 18 June 2017

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

See Words from the same year