Perdicioun

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Eternal damnation and the state of spiritual ruin in which a soul is lost to God ; the complete loss or destruction of something valued
2. The condemnation of a soul to hell and the moral downfall that comes with it ; a total ruin or collapse that leaves nothing intact
3. Being damned to everlasting punishment in the afterlife ; the utter loss, wreckage or destruction of a person's fortunes or a thing

Etymology: "Perdicioun" is a Middle English spelling of a word that came into English from Old French "perdition," itself from Latin "perditio," meaning "destruction" or "ruin," from "perdere," "to destroy, lose utterly." The Latin verb is built from "per-," an intensifying prefix, and "dare," "to give," so the root sense is something like "to give away completely." In the Latin root, the idea was simply loss or ruin, with no religious meaning attached. The religious sense grew out of the Latin Bible and medieval Christian usage. Latin "perditio" was used in translations to render Greek "apoleia," which means destruction or waste, and in the New Testament it describes ultimate ruin, the fate awaiting those who reject salvation. Medieval writers used the word for the loss of the soul, so the sense of eternal damnation became its dominant meaning in Middle English. The spelling "perdicioun" reflects Anglo-Norman and Old French influence on pronunciation, with the "-tion" ending shifting to "-cioun" in the period before standard spelling settled.

Synonyms: perdition, damnation, ruin, destruction, doom

Antonyms: salvation, redemption