Anathema

German Meaning

Anathema

Kirchenbann

English Meaning

  1. A formal ecclesiastical ban, curse, or excommunication.
  2. A vehement denunciation; a curse: "the sound of a witch's anathemas in some unknown tongue” ( Nathaniel Hawthorne).
  3. One that is cursed or damned.
  4. One that is greatly reviled, loathed, or shunned: "Essentialism—a belief in natural, immutable sex differences—is anathema to postmodernists, for whom sexuality itself, along with gender, is a 'social construct'” ( Wendy Kaminer).