heretic Hear it!

heretic Definition

her·etic (herə tik)

noun

a person who professes a heresy; esp., a church member who holds beliefs opposed to church dogma

Etymology: ME heretike < MFr hérétique < LL(Ec) haereticus, of heresy, heretic < Gr hairetikos, able to choose, in LGr(Ec), heretical < hairein, to take, choose

adjective

heretical

heretic Synonyms

heretic

n.

schismatic, apostate, sectarian; see cynic, pagan, skeptic.

heretic Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • burn: Can't stop to chat, I'm off to burn some heretics.
  • consider: Not only was she officially still illegitimate, she was also considered a heretic.
  • call: Maybe part of being liberal is a willingness to question every part of faith at the risk of being called a heretic.
  • become: I have become a heretic on the question of EU expansion.
  • persecute: The Church persecuted heretics, who denied the divinity of Jesus, into extinction.
  • declare: Yet none of them has been declared a heretic or their books banned from our shelves.

Adjective modifier

  • other: She suffered with three other heretics who had all offended in the same delicate point ( fn.
  • first: One of the first heretics went by the name of Marcion.
  • Arian: Since his opponents were Arian heretics, he is claimed as a Catholic martyr.
  • certain: It is true that certain heretics in the 2nd century like Marcion rejected them.
  • such: It may be that there have never been many such formal heretics.
  • Albigensian: He was a friend of Saint Dominic, and persecuted the Albigensian heretics till his death in 1231.

Modifies a noun

  • marcion: Somewhere about AD 150, the heretic Marcion arrived in Rome, and he probably died before 165.
  • Pharaoh: Akenaten is vilified as the heretic Pharaoh and his name is erased from statues and monuments.
  • point: Eric the Heretic points the finger of guilt What's the need for health care?

Noun used with modifier

  • century: Again, already in the second century heretics were making capital out of the discrepancies between the Gospels. [ Iren.
  • burning: When governments stopped burning heretics and witches, effigy burning remained as a threatening gesture of the mob.

Preposition: in

  • century: It is true that certain heretics in the 2nd century like Marcion rejected them.

Preposition: of

  • century: Listening to the program, one would never know why one of the skeptical heretics of the twentieth century simply will not go away.
heretic Quotes

[Jeremy] Bentham held no post at the mercy of bankers and tripe sellers; he was a man of independent means, a lawyer and politician and a heretic in general practice. It is impossible to imagine such a man occupying a chair at Harvard or Princeton.Hehad a hand intoomany pies; he was too rebellious and contumacious; he had too little respect for authority, either academic or worldly. Moreover, his mind was too wide for a professor; he Mencken could never remain safely in a groove; the whole field of social organization invited his inquiries and experiments.

—Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis)

Tout re¤  volutionnaire finit en oppresseur ou en he¤  re¤  tique. Every revolutionary ends as an oppressor or a heretic.

—Camus, Albert