Gadarene

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Rushing headlong toward disaster in a reckless, herd-like manner ; belonging to or characteristic of the ancient town of Gadara and its surrounding region
2. Hurtling blindly toward ruin as if following the crowd ; pertaining to the ancient Decapolis town of Gadara or its inhabitants
3. Describing a reckless, mindless plunge toward destruction ; of or from the old city of Gadara in the Near East

Etymology: "Gadarene" describes something headlong and reckless, a rush toward ruin, and it traces back to a town in the Roman-era Near East. The word comes from Late Latin "Gadarēnus," which in turn was borrowed from Ancient Greek "Gadarēnos," meaning "inhabitant of Gadara." Gadara was a city in what is now northern Jordan, and its modern name is Umm Qais. The sense of the word comes from a single episode in the New Testament, in which Jesus casts demons out of a man and into a herd of swine. The herd then rushes down a steep slope into the sea and drowns. The gospel accounts place this near the territory of the Gadarenes, and the Latin-derived form stuck to the story. The English adjective took on that image of a crowd plunging headlong to destruction, which is why the word now describes reckless rushing toward disaster rather than anything about geography.

Synonyms: headlong, reckless

Antonyms: cautious