pariah

Noun

pariah (plural pariahs)

1. Synonym of outcast: A person despised and excluded by their family, community, or society, especially a member of the untouchable castes in Indian society.
   • What is this smoking that it should be considered a crime? I believe in my heart that women are jealous of it, as of a rival. They speak of it as of some secret, awful vice that seizes upon a man, and makes him a Pariah from genteel society.1857, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “The Fitz-Boodle Papers”, in Miscellanies: Prose and Verse, volume IV, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], →OCLC, page 4
   • I’m a pariah, outlawed from Time Lord society.1985, Robert Holmes, “The Two Doctors”, in Doctor Who, season 22, episode 4

   Synonyms:

   outcast

2. (figuratively) A similarly despised group of people or species of animal.
   • As ecological conditions became unfavorable for pig raising, there was no alternative function which could redeem its existence. The creature became not only useless, but worse than useless—harmful, a curse to touch or merely to see—a pariah animal.2013, Marvin Harris, “The Abominable Pig”, in Food and Culture: A Reader, 3rd edition, New York City, →ISBN, pages 64–65
   • This scenario could lead to war crimes the scale of which has not been seen in Europe since the Nazis — crimes that would make Vladimir Putin, his cronies and Russia as a country all global pariahs.2022 March 2, Thomas L. Friedman, “I See Three Scenarios for How This War Ends”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 26 Mar 2022