What does anathema mean?

Definitions for anathema
əˈnæθ ə məanath·e·ma

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word anathema.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. anathema, bete noirenoun

    a detested person

    "he is an anathema to me"

  2. anathemanoun

    a formal ecclesiastical curse accompanied by excommunication

Wiktionary

  1. anathemanoun

    A ban or curse pronounced with religious solemnity by ecclesiastical authority, often accompanied by excommunication; denunciation of anything as accursed.

  2. anathemanoun

    An imprecation; a curse; a malediction.

  3. anathemanoun

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

  4. Etymology: From anathema, from ἀνάθεμα, from ἀνατίθημι, from ἀνά + τίθημι. The Ancient Greek term was influenced by Hebrew חרם, leading to the sense of "accursed," especially in Ecclesiastical writers.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. ANATHEMAnoun

    Etymology: ἀνάϑεμα.

    Her bare anathemas fall but like so many bruta fulmina upon the schismatical; who think themselves shrewdly hurt, forsooth, by being cut off from the body, which they choose not to be of. Robert South, Sermons.

Wikipedia

  1. Anathema

    Anathema, in common usage, is something or someone detested or shunned. In its other main usage, it is a formal excommunication. The latter meaning, its ecclesiastical sense, is based on New Testament usage. In the Old Testament, anathema was a creature or object set apart for sacrificial offering and thus removed from ordinary use and destined instead for destruction.

ChatGPT

  1. anathema

    Anathema refers to something or someone that is detested or greatly disliked. It is also used in a religious context to denote excommunication or a strong curse. In general, it is a formal condemnation or curse that can be personal or public.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Anathemanoun

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

  2. Anathemanoun

    an imprecation; a curse; a malediction

  3. Anathemanoun

    any person or thing anathematized, or cursed by ecclesiastical authority

  4. Etymology: [L. anathma, fr. Gr. anything devoted, esp. to evil, a curse; also L. anathma, fr. Gr. a votive offering; all fr. to set up as a votive gift, dedicate; up + to set. See Thesis.]

Wikidata

  1. Anathema

    Anathema was originally used as a term for exile from the church, but evolved to mean "set apart, banished, denounced". The word comes from Koine Greek ἀνάθεμα, meaning "something dedicated, especially dedicated to evil", from ἀνατίθημι, meaning "offer as a votive gift", from ἀνά, meaning "on", and τίθημι, meaning "I put". It originally meant something lifted up as an offering to the gods; it later evolved to mean: ⁕to be formally set apart; ⁕banished, exiled, excommunicated; ⁕denounced, sometimes accursed In the Christian Bible, it appears in conjunction with the word "maranatha".

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Anathema

    an-ath′em-a, n. a solemn ecclesiastical curse or denunciation involving excommunication: any person or thing anathematised: generally, any imprecation or expression of execration.—n. Anathematisā′tionv.t. Anath′ematise, to pronounce accursed.—Anathema maranātha, as in 1 Cor. xvi. 22; maranatha (Syr. māran ethā, 'our Lord hath come') is properly a mere solemn formula of confirmation, like Amen, having no other connection with the antecedent anathema—it is so printed in the Revised Version.—It seems to have been used by the early Christians as a kind of watchword of mutual encouragement and hope. So the words in 1 Cor. xvi. 22 are nearly equivalent to the similar expressions in Phil. iv. 5; Rev. xxii. 20. [The classical Gr. anathēma meant a votive offering set up in a temple, ana, up, tithenai, to place; the anathĕma of the Septuagint and New Testament meant something specially devoted to evil, as in Rom. ix. 3.]

Suggested Resources

  1. anathema

    Song lyrics by anathema -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by anathema on the Lyrics.com website.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of anathema in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of anathema in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9

Examples of anathema in a Sentence

  1. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld:

    Tariffs, trade wars and anti-immigration policies are anathema to business. They hate that.

  2. Stacey Abrams:

    I do not believe in the privatization of justice, there is a profit motive behind private prisons that is anathema to the core of who we are as Americans.

  3. Sturt Manning:

    It seeks to destroy diversity and enforce narrow uniformity. Evidence of a tolerant, diverse past is anathema, what it fears is memory and knowledge, which it cannot destroy.

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"anathema." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/anathema>.

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