Onolatria

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The religious veneration or worship of donkeys, a practice attributed to some ancient and early Christian accusers
2. Excessive reverence paid to asses as if they were divine, a form of animal worship found in certain historical accounts
3. Devotion directed toward donkeys as sacred beings, the act of venerating these animals in a religious manner

Etymology: Onolatria is the worship of donkeys, and the word is a deliberately constructed insult rather than a term that grew up in everyday speech. It combines the Greek "onos," meaning donkey, with "latreia," the word for worship or service, which is also the root of "idolatry." Its best-known use comes from ancient Rome: the story that Christians were accused of worshipping a donkey-headed god circulated in the pagan world, and an image scratched on a Roman wall in Palatine Hill, often called the Alexamenos graffito, shows a man mocking a crucified figure with a donkey's head. The word itself appears in English dictionaries mainly as a scholarly or antiquarian term, used when discussing that accusation or the ancient ass-cult myths. It is a modern coinage built from classical parts, so it reflects the Greek vocabulary of worship rather than any ancient Greek or Roman usage of this exact compound.