anathema

Borrowed from Late Latin anathema (“curse, person cursed, offering”), itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ἀνάθεμα (anáthema, “something dedicated, especially dedicated to evil”), from ἀνατίθημι (anatíthēmi, “I set upon, offer as a votive gift”), from ἀνά (aná, “upon”) + τίθημι (títhēmi, “I put, place”). The Ancient Greek term was influenced by Hebrew חרם‎ (herem), leading to the sense of "accursed," especially in Ecclesiastical writers.

• IPA^(key): /əˈnæθəmə/

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• Hyphenation: a‧na‧the‧ma

anathema (plural anathemas or anathemata)

1. (ecclesiastical, historical) A ban or curse pronounced with religious solemnity by ecclesiastical authority, often accompanied by excommunication; something denounced as accursed. [from early 17th c.]

   Synonyms: ban, curse

2. (by extension) Something which is vehemently disliked by somebody.

   Synonym: bête noire

   • 2015 January 18, Monty Munford, “What’s the point of carrying a mobile phone nowadays?”, in The Daily Telegraph‎:

     Even three years ago, the thought of spending two hours, let alone a whole day, without my mobile would have been anathema.

3. (literary) An imprecation; a curse; a malediction.
   • 1920, Edwin Alrington /Robinson, The Three Taverns, "The Wandering Jew"

     I trembled at his ringing wealth

     Of manifold 'anathemas […]

   • 2002, Joseph O'Conner, Star of the Sea, Vintage 2003, p. 30:

     That was a curse from which no flight was possible: the anathema of a man who had once known holiness.

4. (ecclesiastical) Any person or thing anathematized, or cursed by ecclesiastical authority. [from 1520s]
   • 1611, King James Version, 1 Corinthians 16:22:

     If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.

   • 1707, John Locke, An Essay for Understanding St. Paul's Epistles, by Consulting St. Paul Himself, "The Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans," Section VIII:

     Ἆνάθεμα, accurẛed, חרם, which the Septuagint renders Anathema, ẛignifies Perẛons or Things devoted to Deẛtruction and Extermination. The Jewiẛh Nation were now an Anathema, deẛtin'd to Deẛtruction. St. Paul to expreẛs his Affection to them, ẛays, he could wiẛh to ẛave them from it, to become an Anathema and be deẛtroy'd himẛelf.

   • 1885, “The Anathemas of Cyril in Opposition to Nestorius”, in Philip Schaff, editor, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (II), volume III:

     If any one refuses to confess that the Word of God the Father is united in hypostasis to flesh, and is one Christ with His own flesh, the same being at once both God and man, let him be anathema.

New Advent: The Catholic on-line encyclopedia.

• anathema on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀνάθεμα (anáthema, “something dedicated, especially dedicated to evil”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /aˈna.tʰe.ma/, [aˈna.tʰɛ.ma]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /aˈna.te.ma/, [aˈnaː.te.ma]

anathema n (genitive anathematis); third declension

1. offering (especially the life of a person)
2. curse
3. excommunication

Third declension neuter.

• anathema in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• anathema in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)