Heretic

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈhɛɹɪtɪk/

Definitions

1. A person who holds or expresses religious beliefs that contradict the orthodox doctrines accepted by their community or church
2. a person who publicly rejects or challenges established religious doctrines considered sacred by their faith community
3. someone who professes beliefs that deviate fundamentally from the orthodox teachings upheld as authoritative within their religious tradition

Etymology: Ancient Greek "hairetikos" originally meant "able to choose," and it carried no sense of wrongdoing at all. It came from "haireo," "to choose," and a person who chose a school of thought or a faction was simply "hairetikos." Early Christian writers, however, turned the word against rival groups, implying that anyone who chose their own doctrine over the accepted one was splitting from the truth. The word passed into Latin as "haereticus," and from there into Old French as "eretique," before reaching English in Middle English as "heretyk" or "heretike." The shift from choosing to dissenting is the whole story: the choice itself became the offence. Used in English today, the term describes someone who publicly rejects doctrines their faith community holds sacred, so the old neutral sense of choosing has been replaced entirely by one of defiance.

Synonyms: dissenter, nonconformist, rebel

Antonyms: believer, follower