heretic

Alternative forms

• hæretic (archaic), hæretick (obsolete), heretick (obsolete), heretike (archaic)

Etymology

Middle English, from Old French eretique, from Medieval Latin haereticus, from Ancient Greek αἱρετικός (hairetikós, “able to choose, factious”)

Pronunciation

• (noun): (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛɹɨtɪk/

Noun

heretic (plural heretics)

1. Someone who believes contrary to the fundamental tenets of a religion they claim to belong to.
   • 1974, Thomas S. Szasz, M.D., chapter 11, in The Myth of Mental Illness‎, →ISBN, page 197:

     In the framework of traditional medical ethics, the patient
     deserves humane attention only insofar as he is potentially
     healthy and is willing to be healthy—just as in the framework
     of traditional Christian ethics, the heretic deserved humane
     attention only insofar as he was potentially a true believer and
     was willing to become one. In the one case, people are
     accepted as human beings only because they might be healthy
     citizens; in the other, only because they might be faithful
     Christians. In short, neither was heresy formerly, nor is sick-
     ness now, given the kind of humane recognition which, from
     the point of view of an ethic of respect and tolerance, they
     deserve.

2. A person with a belief structure or performs an action that the majority consider incorrect as it is different than the generally accepted.

Adjective

heretic (comparative more heretic, superlative most heretic)

1. (archaic) Heretical; of or pertaining to heresy or heretics.

Related terms

• heresy
• heretical

Anagrams

• chierte, erethic, etheric, techier

Etymology

See heresy.

Noun

heretic (plural heretics)

1. heretic
2. (literary style) A poet who claims to have no religion, or to disdain one.

   He's as puir as the heretic baird.