heathen
pronunciation
How to pronounce heathen in British English:
UK [ˈhi:ðn]
How to pronounce heathen in American English:
US [ˈhiðən]
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- Noun:
- a person who does not acknowledge your God
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- Adjective:
- not acknowledging the God of Christianity and Judaism and Islam
Word Origin
- heathen
- heathen: [OE] Etymologically, a heathen is ‘someone who lives on the heath’ – that is, someone who lives in a wild upcountry area, and is uncivilized and savage (the word was derived in prehistoric Germanic times from *khaithiz ‘heath’, and is also represented in German heide, Dutch heiden, and Swedish and Danish heden). Its specific use for ‘person who is not a Christian’ seems to have been directly inspired by Latin pāgānus (source of English pagan), which likewise originally meant ‘countrydweller’. (Etymologically, savages too were to begin with dwellers in ‘wild woodland’ areas, while civilized or urbane people lived in cities or towns.) The now archaic hoyden ‘high-spirited girl’ [16] was borrowed from Dutch heiden ‘heathen’.=> heath, hoyden
- heathen
- Old English hæðen "not Christian or Jewish," also as a noun, "heathen man, one of a race or nation which does not acknowledge the God of the Bible" (especially of the Danes), merged with Old Norse heiðinn (adj.) "heathen, pagan," of uncertain origin. Cognate with Old Saxon hedhin, Old Frisian hethen, Dutch heiden, Old High German heidan, German Heiden. Perhaps literally "dweller on the heath, one inhabiting uncultivated land;" see heath + -en (2). Historically assumed to be ultimately from Gothic haiþno "gentile, heathen woman," used by Ulfilas in the first translation of the Bible into a Germanic language (as in Mark vii:26, for "Greek"); like other basic words for exclusively Christian ideas (such as church) it likely would have come first into Gothic and then spread to other Germanic languages. If so it could be a noun use of an unrelated Gothic adjective (compare Gothic haiþi "dwelling on the heath," but a religious sense is not recorded for this). Whether native or Gothic, it may have been chosen on model of Latin paganus, with its root sense of "rural" (see pagan), or for resemblance to Greek ethne (see gentile), or it may be a literal borrowing of that Greek word, perhaps via Armenian hethanos [Sophus Bugge].
Example
- 1. It might seem odd that someone who compared " the bloudie crueltie of christian portugals " unfavourably with " the heathen mercy of savage man-eaters " should use his understanding of tribal customs and languages to boost brazil 's sugar production so barbarically .
- 2. Arise , o lord ; let not man prevail : let the heathen be judged in thy sight .
- 3. And the heathen shall know that I the lord do sanctify israel , when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore .
- 4. And you married a christian minister to a heathen ? Abner asked , aghast .
- 5. And ye shall perish among the heathen , and the land of your enemies shall eat you up .