a·nath·e·ma
( -n th -m)
n. pl. a·nath·e·mas
1. A formal ecclesiastical ban, curse, or
excommunication.
2. A vehement denunciation; a curse: "the sound of a witch's anathemas in some unknown
tongue" (Nathaniel Hawthorne).
3. One that is cursed or damned.
4. One that is greatly reviled, loathed, or shunned:
"Essentialism
 a belief in natural, immutable sex
differencesis
anathema to postmodernists, for whom sexuality itself, along with gender, is a
'social construct'" (Wendy
Kaminer).
[Late Latin anathema, doomed offering, accursed
thing, from Greek, from anatithenai, anathe-, to
dedicate : ana-, ana- + tithenai, to put;
see dh
 -
in Indo-European roots.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language,
Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009.
Published by Houghton
Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Though Sam plays a lot of great tennis players, his greatest anathema is his own frustration.
Though Sam plays a lot of great tennis players, his greatest anathema is his own frustration.
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