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| Definition | |||||||||||||||
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| WORD GAMES AND QUIZZES: WEEKLY CHALLENGE | |||||||||||||
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| Did You Know? | ||||||
From a historical perspective, anathema can be considered a one-word oxymoron.
When it first appeared in English in the 1500s, 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. Modern English speakers are most likely to encounter anathema used as a predicate nominative in the sense of "someone or something that is intensely disliked," as in the example sentences below.
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| Examples of ANATHEMA | ||||||
"Diets were anathema to Julia because they implied that food was harmful."
— Cook's Illustrated, November & December 2004
"Preordaining a peaceful future, especially an apparently zombie-free one, should be anathema to a show that clings to week-by-week anticipation."
— Charles Bramesco, The New York Times, 5 Mar. 2018
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| Name That Synonym | ||||||
Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of anathema: e _ _ c _ a _ _ on.
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