Etymologically
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anathema

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /əˈnæθəmə/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin anathema (“an excommunicated person; a curse”),[2][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek ἀνάθεμα (anáthema, “a thing devoted to evil, accursed”),[2][4] a variant of anáthēma “a thing devoted, set up as an offering”,[2][6] from anatithénai “to set up, dedicate”,[3][4][5] from Ancient Greek ἀνα- (ana-, “up”) + τιθέναι (tithénai, “to put, place”),[3][4][2] from Proto-Indo-European *dhe- (“to set, put”).[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Anything accursed or consigned to damnation (1526).[6][4][5][2]

Semantic evolution

In classical Greek the word meant an offering set up in a temple; in church Greek and Latin it came to mean something devoted to evil, and then accursed or damned.[2][6] It was later applied to persons and to the curse itself:[2] the formal act of excommunication and consignment to damnation is attested from the 1610s.[2][1] As anathemas were freely used as weapons in church controversy, the sense weakened to any curse or denunciation (a1619),[6] and finally to anything intensely disliked.[3][4][7] The original Greek sense “a thing consecrated” was also borrowed separately (1581).[6]

Timeline

  • 1526 – anything accursed or consigned to damnation.[6][4][5]
  • 1581 – a thing devoted or consecrated to divine use.[6]
  • 1610s – the formal act or formula of excommunication.[2][1]
  • a1619 – a curse or imprecation in general.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Someone or something intensely disliked or shunned.
  2. A formal ecclesiastical curse, usually involving excommunication.
  3. A vehement denunciation; a curse.
  4. Someone or something cursed by church authority.

Word family

  • anathematic
  • anathematize
  • thesis
  • theme

Usage notes

In the sense “something loathed” it is usually used as a predicate noun without an article, as in the idea was anathema to him.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House