Word of the Day:
iconoclast
What It Means
One who destroys religious images or icons, especially an opponent of the Orthodox Church in the 8th and 9th centuries, or a Puritan during the European Reformation.
One who opposes orthodoxy and religion; one who adheres to the doctrine of iconoclasm.
One who attacks cherished beliefs; a maverick.
Iconoclast in Context
“Coming so soon after the death of David Bowie, it’s a moment to consider how deeply important iconoclasts are to the evolution of a culture. Do they change the world by trying to change it, or do they change the world through the radical act of simply being themselves?”
Did You Know?
Borrowed from French iconoclaste and its etymon Medieval Latin īconoclastēs, from Byzantine Greek εἰκονοκλάστης (eikonoklástēs, literally “image breaker”). By surface analysis, icono- + -clast.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: iconoclast (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the word and reformatted its meaning, examples and origin.
Cite this entry: “iconoclast.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/iconoclast. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.