different between accursed vs anathema

English

Alternative forms

• (obsolete) accurst [13^th C.]

Etymology

• First attested in the early 13th century.
• From Middle English acursed, from acursen (“to curse”), from Old English ?cursian, from ? + cursen, from curs (“curse”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??k??.s?d/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??k?.s?d/
• ,

Adjective

accursed (comparative more accursed, superlative most accursed)

1. (prenominal) Hateful; detestable, loathsome.
   • ca. 1789, William Blake, "Tiriel",

     Accursed race of Tiriel. behold your father // Come forth & look on her that bore you. come you accursed sons.

   • 1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe, Chapter 35,

     Lo! they are charged with studying the accursed cabalistical secrets of the Jews, and the magic of the Paynim Saracens.

   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 532:

     […] Alaeddin ate and drank and was cheered and after he had rested and had recovered spirits he cried, "Ah, O my mother, I have a sore grievance against thee for leaving me to that accursed wight who strave to compass my destruction and designed to take my life. Know that I beheld Death with mine own eyes at the hand of this damned wretch, whom thou didst certify to be my uncle; […]

2. (archaic, theology) Doomed to destruction or misery; cursed; anathematized.
   • 1885, Charles Abel Heurtley (translator), The Commonitory of Vincent of Lérins, Chapter 8,

     […] —if any one, be he who he may, attempt to alter the faith once for all delivered, let him be accursed.

   • 1912, Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Constance Garnett, The Brothers Karamazov, Book III, Chapter 7,

     For at the very moment I become accursed, at that same highest moment, I become exactly like a heathen […]

   • 1955, J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King, The Return of the King/Book V, Chapter 10

     We did not come here to waste words in treating with Sauron, faithless and accursed; still less with one of his slaves. Begone!

Synonyms

• (hateful, detestable): execrable, damnable

Derived terms

• accursedly
• accursedness

Translations

Verb

accursed

1. simple past tense and past participle of accurse

Anagrams

• cardecus, cue cards

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin anathema (“curse, person cursed, offering”), itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ??????? (anáthema, “something dedicated, especially dedicated to evil”), from ????????? (anatíth?mi, “I set upon, offer as a votive gift”), from ??? (aná, “upon”) + ?????? (títh?mi, “I put, place”). The Ancient Greek term was influenced by Hebrew ???? (herem), leading to the sense of "accursed," especially in Ecclesiastical writers.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??næ??m?/
• Hyphenation: a?na?the?ma

Noun

anathema (plural anathemas or anathemata)

1. (ecclesiastical, historical) A ban or curse pronounced with religious solemnity by ecclesiastical authority, often accompanied by excommunication; something denounced as accursed. [from early 17th c.]

   Synonyms: ban, curse

2. (by extension) Something which is vehemently disliked by somebody.

   Synonym: bête noire
3. (literary) An imprecation; a curse; a malediction.
   • 1920, Edwin Alrington /Robinson, The Three Taverns, "The Wandering Jew"

     I trembled at his ringing wealth

     Of manifold anathemas […]

   • 2002, Joseph O'Conner, Star of the Sea, Vintage 2003, p. 30:

4. (ecclesiastical) Any person or thing anathematized, or cursed by ecclesiastical authority. [from 1520s]
   • 1611, King James Version, 1 Corinthians 16:22:

     If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.

   • 1707, John Locke, An Essay for Understanding St. Paul's Epistles, by Consulting St. Paul Himself, "The Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans," Section VIII:

     ???????, accur?ed, ???, which the Septuagint renders Anathema, ?ignifies Per?ons or Things devoted to De?truction and Extermination. The Jewi?h Nation were now an Anathema, de?tin'd to De?truction. St. Paul to expre?s his Affection to them, ?ays, he could wi?h to ?ave them from it, to become an Anathema and be de?troy'd him?elf.

Derived terms

Translations

References

New Advent: The Catholic on-line encyclopedia.

Further reading

• anathema on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ??????? (anáthema, “something dedicated, especially dedicated to evil”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /a?na.t?e.ma/, [ä?nät???mä]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /a?na.te.ma/, [??n??t??m?]

Noun

anathema n (genitive anathematis); third declension

1. offering (especially the life of a person)
2. curse
3. excommunication

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

Descendants

• German: Anathema

References

• anathema in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• anathema in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)