Manichee

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. An adherent of Manichaeism, the ancient dualist faith founded by the prophet Mani in Persia ; a person who views existence as a absolute conflict between light and darkness
2. A believer in the third-century religion of Mani that divided reality into opposing forces of spirit and matter ; someone who interprets the world as a stark battle between good and evil
3. One who follows Manichaeism, the dualistic religious system teaching that light and darkness contend throughout creation ; a person who sees all human affairs as a simple contest of good against evil

Etymology: The Manichees were named after Mani, a third-century prophet from Persia who founded a religion blending elements of Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Buddhism. Medieval Greek turned his name into "Manikhaios", and Latin writers then formed "Manichaeus", whose plural "Manichaei" gave English its earliest form of the word. Because the term was used as a plural, people spoke of "the Manichees" as a group, and only later did the word come to be used of individuals and as an adjective. Mani's teaching presented the world as a struggle between light and darkness, spirit and matter, and early Christian heresy-hunters treated his followers as a dangerous rival to orthodoxy. That hostility is why the name stuck in English as a label for anyone who divides the world into absolute good and absolute evil, so that a critic calling an opponent a manichee is accusing them of thinking in those stark terms.

Synonyms: Manichaean, dualist