iconoclast

i·con·o·clast  (-kn-klst)

n.

1. One who attacks and seeks to overthrow traditional or popular ideas or institutions.

2. One who destroys sacred religious images.

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[French iconoclaste, from Medieval Greek eikonoklasts, smasher of religious images : eikono-, icono- + Greek -klasts, breaker (from Greek kln, klas-, to break).]

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i·cono·clastic adj.

i·cono·clasti·cal·ly adv.

Word History: An iconoclast can be unpleasant company, but at least the modern iconoclast only attacks such things as ideas and institutions. The original iconoclasts destroyed countless works of art. Eikonoklasts, the ancestor of our word, was first formed in Medieval Greek from the elements eikn, "image, likeness," and -klasts, "breaker," from kln, "to break." The images referred to by the word are religious images, which were the subject of controversy among Christians of the Byzantine Empire in the 8th and 9th centuries, when iconoclasm was at its height. In addition to destroying many sculptures and paintings, those opposed to images attempted to have them barred from display and veneration. During the Protestant Reformation images in churches were again felt to be idolatrous and were once more banned and destroyed. It is around this time that iconoclast, the descendant of the Greek word, is first recorded in English (1641), with reference to the Byzantine iconoclasts. In the 19th century iconoclast took on the secular sense that it has today, as in "Kant was the great iconoclast" (James Martineau).

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iconoclast [aɪˈkɒnəˌklæst]

n

1. a person who attacks established or traditional concepts, principles, laws, etc.

2.

a.  a destroyer of religious images or sacred objects

b.  an adherent of the heretical movement within the Greek Orthodox Church from 725 to 842 ad, which aimed at the destruction of icons and religious images

[from Late Latin iconoclastes, from Late Greek eikonoklastes, from eikōn icon + klastēs breaker]

iconoclastic  adj

iconoclastically  adv

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	iconoclast - a destroyer of images used in religious worship image breaker ruiner, uprooter, waster, destroyer, undoer - a person who destroys or ruins or lays waste to; "a destroyer of the environment"; "jealousy was his undoer"; "uprooters of gravestones"
	2.	iconoclast - someone who attacks cherished ideas or traditional institutions aggressor, assailant, assaulter, attacker - someone who attacks

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iconoclast

noun rebel, radical, dissident, heretic He was an iconoclast who refused to be bound by tradition.

Translations

iconoclast [aɪˈkɒnəklæst] N → iconoclasta mf

iconoclast [aɪˈkɒnəklæst] n → iconoclaste mf

iconoclast

n (lit) → Bilderstürmer m, → Ikonoklast m (liter); (fig) → Bilderstürmer(in) m(f)

iconoclast [aɪˈkɒnəklæst] n (frm) → iconoclasta m/f

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iconoclast [aɪˈkɒnəklæst] n (frm) → iconoclasta m/f