iconoclaste

Forms

iconoclaste (plural iconoclastes)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Byzantine Greek εἰκονοκλάστης (eikonoklástēs, “breaker of images”).^[2][3][4][1] The Greek word is composed of Ancient Greek εἰκών (eikṓn, “image”) (the source of icône) and a derivative of κλάω (kláō, “to break”).^[5][3][6][7] The Latin forms iconoclastae (1596) and iconoclastes (1610) are recorded about the same time.^[5][7]

Bloch and Wartburg date the French word to 1557, while the TLFi's own first record is from 1605.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bloch and Wartburg date the word to 1557;^[2] the GLLF places its first use in the middle of the 16th century, for the followers of the Byzantine heretics of the 8th and 9th centuries who wanted to destroy the images of Christ, the Virgin and the saints.^[8] The first record the TLFi gives is in Le Loyer's Histoire des spectres (1605), cited from Huguet.^[5]

Semantic evolution

As a term of religious history the word named the supporters of the Byzantine emperors who opposed the veneration of holy images in the 8th and 9th centuries.^[7][4] By 1690 it was also used of anyone who forbids or destroys images of the divine persons and the saints, and by extension works of art;^[7][8] Littré applies it in this wider sense to the Huguenots.^[6]

In the 19th century it took on the pejorative figurative sense of someone hostile to traditions and to everything inherited from the past, to the point of wanting to destroy it;^[7][4] the GLLF finds this sense before 1885 in Victor Hugo.^[8] In the 20th century it was also applied to those who, after a political upheaval, try to remove every reminder of the fallen regime (Larousse, 1962).^[8] English took iconoclast in the 1590s, from the French word and directly from Medieval Latin.^[9]

Timeline

• 1557 – First record, according to Bloch and Wartburg.^[2][3][4]
• 1590s – English iconoclast is recorded.^[9]
• 1605 – Le Loyer uses it in his Histoire des spectres.^[5]
• 1690 – Furetière records the sense “destroyer of sacred images”.^[8][7]
• 1705 – The derivative iconoclastique appears.^[7]
• 1832 – iconoclasme is first recorded.^[7]
• before 1868 – iconoclastie appears in Bürger’s Salons.^[5][7]
• before 1885 – Victor Hugo uses it of an enemy of traditions.^[8]
• 1962 – Larousse records the political sense.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (history) A supporter of the Byzantine emperors of the 8th and 9th centuries who opposed the veneration of holy images.^[4][5][8]
2. A person who forbids or destroys sacred images, and by extension works of art.^[4][8]
3. (figurative, pejorative) A person hostile to traditions who seeks to do away with them.^[4][10]
4. A person who, after a change of regime, tries to remove every reminder of the old one.^[8]

Adjective

1. (history) Relating to iconoclasme or to its supporters.^[4][5][10]
2. Destroying or forbidding sacred images: des soldats iconoclastes.^[4][8]
3. (figurative) Hostile to tradition, irreverent: un critique iconoclaste.^[4][10]

Word family

• iconoclastique
• iconoclasme
• iconoclastie

Related words

• icône
• iconolâtre
• Ancient Greek εἰκών (eikṓn)
• English iconoclast

Usage notes

Its opposite is iconolâtre “worshipper of images”.^[4][10]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
3. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
6. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)