a·nath·e·ma

(ə-năth′ə-mə)

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 differences—is anathema to postmodernists, for whom sexuality itself, along with gender, is a 'social construct'" (Wendy Kaminer).

[Late Latin, doomed offering, accursed thing, from Greek, from anatithenai, anathe-, to dedicate : ana-, ana- + tithenai, to put; see dhē- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

anathema

(əˈnæθəmə)

n, pl -mas

1. a detested person or thing: he is anathema to me.

2. (Ecclesiastical Terms) a formal ecclesiastical curse of excommunication or a formal denunciation of a doctrine

3. (Ecclesiastical Terms) the person or thing so cursed

4. a strong curse; imprecation

[C16: via Church Latin from Greek: something accursed, dedicated (to evil), from anatithenai to dedicate, from ana- + tithenai to set]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

a•nath•e•ma

(əˈnæθ ə mə)

n., pl. -mas.

1. a person or thing detested or loathed: That subject is anathema to them.

2. a person or thing condemned to damnation.

3. an ecclesiastical curse of excommunication.

4. any imprecation of divine punishment.

5. a curse; execration.

[1520–30; < Latin < Greek anáthema a thing devoted to evil, earlier anáthēma votive offering]

a•nath`e•mat′ic (-ˈmæt ɪk) adj.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	anathema - a detested person; "he is an anathema to me" bete noire disagreeable person, unpleasant person - a person who is not pleasant or agreeable
	2.	anathema - a formal ecclesiastical curse accompanied by excommunication curse, execration, condemnation - an appeal to some supernatural power to inflict evil on someone or some group

anathema

noun abomination, bête noire, enemy, pariah, bane, bugbear Violence was anathema to them.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

anathema

noun

1. A denunciation invoking a wish or threat of evil or injury:

curse, damnation, execration, imprecation, malediction.

Archaic: malison.

2. An object of extreme dislike:

abhorrence, abomination, aversion, bête noire, bugbear, detestation, execration, hate.

Informal: horror.

Translations

Kirchenbann BannfluchBannstrahl

anatema

anatemă

anathema

[əˈnæθɪmə] N

1. (Rel) → anatema m

2. (fig) he is anathema to me → no lo puedo ver, para mí es inaguantable
the idea is anathema to her → para ella la idea es una abominación, la idea le resulta odiosa

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

anathema

[əˈnæθəmə] n → anathème m
to be anathema to sb
It is anathema to him → Il a cela en abomination.

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

anathema

n (Eccl) → Anathema (form) nt, → Kirchenbann m; (fig, no art) → ein Gräuel m; voting Labour was anathema to them → der Gedanke, Labour zu wählen, war ihnen ein Gräuel

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

anathema

[əˈnæθɪmə] n (Rel) (fig) → anatema m
it is anathema to him → non ne vuol neanche sentir parlare

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

To a people of this nature the Homeric epos would be inacceptable, and the post-Homeric epic, with its conventional atmosphere, its trite and hackneyed diction, and its insincere sentiment, would be anathema. We can imagine, therefore, that among such folk a settler, of Aeolic origin like Hesiod, who clearly was well acquainted with the Ionian epos, would naturally see that the only outlet for his gifts lay in applying epic poetry to new themes acceptable to his hearers.

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Paul's perfection, that he would wish to be anathema from Christ, for the salvation of his brethren, it shows much of a divine nature, and a kind of conformity with Christ himself

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To do anything THEY have never done is anathema maranatha.

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The meagre but sufficient identification of the deceased; the impudent candor of confession; the brutal anathema; the ludicrous change of sex and sentiment--all marked this record as the work of one who must have been at least as much demented as bereaved.

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Never; and if the Pyncheons had always acted so nobly, I doubt whether an old wizard Maule's anathema, of which you told me once, would have had much weight with Providence against them."

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He shrank from the venerable saint as if to avoid an anathema. Old Deacon Gookin was at domestic worship, and the holy words of his prayer were heard through the open window.

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The latter more than once received from his lips curses as sententious and as complicated as that celebrated anathema of the church, for a knowledge of which most unlettered Protestants are indebted to the pious researches of the worthy Tristram Shandy.

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Pickwick bestowed a look of excessive disgust on his unwelcome visitor, and would probably have hurled some tremendous anathema at the heads of Messrs.

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And though no voice but his was heard to speak aloud, still there were revilings and anathemas, whispered but distinct, from women and from men, breathed against the daughter who had wrung the aged hearts of her parents,--the wife who had betrayed the trusting fondness of her husband,--the mother who had sinned against natural affection, and left her child to die.

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Deep love and fierce resentment burned in one flame within his breast, Anathemas struggled with benedictions.

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Stubb was struck by a shower of outcries and anathemas proceeding from the Captain's round-house abaft; and looking in that direction saw a fiery face thrust from behind the door, which was held ajar from within.

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If the children gathered about her, as they sometimes did, Pearl would grow positively terrible in her puny wrath, snatching up stones to fling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamations, that made her mother tremble, because they had so much the sound of a witch's anathemas in some unknown tongue.

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