Aristos GeorgiouHelena SmithChristopher HowseR. E. WinnNathaniel HawthorneCharles Dudley WarnerPeter Scott BrownScott McMurray
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The Uses and Origins of Heathen and Pagan
Heathen is a dated term used primarily of someone who is not religious, or whose religion is not Judaism, Islam, or especially Christianity. It is also sometimes used disapprovingly of someone who is not cultured; this use is also dated.
In current use, pagan is most commonly used of someone who practices a contemporary form of paganism, such as Wicca, making the word synonymous with neo-pagan. But pagan also has meanings identical to those of heathen; in those uses it too is dated. Additionally, pagan has literary use referring to a nonreligious person who delights in sensual pleasures and material goods.
The origins of heathen and pagan are semantically similar. Heathen likely comes from a term for a country inhabitant—in particular, a “heath dweller.” The Latin source of pagan, paganus, originally meant “country dweller” or “civilian;” it was used at the end of the Roman Empire to refer to people who practiced a religion other than Christianity, Judaism, or Islam, and especially to those who worshiped multiple deities. It’s believed that the religious meanings of paganus developed either from the enduring non-Christian religious practices of those who lived far from the Roman cities where Christianity was more quickly adopted, or from the fact that early Christians referred to themselves as “soldiers of Christ,” making nonbelievers “civilians.”
Synonyms
Examples of pagan in a Sentence
Atlanta Life, ajc, 10 Nov. 2017
While plague stalks the land, paranoid peasants swap cautionary folk tales about evil spirits, pagans, Jews and other outsiders.
—Stephen Dalton, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Oct. 2017
Thomas Jefferson had strong views on religion, but his Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom disestablished the Church of England and established religious liberty for Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, even pagans.
—Jonah Goldberg, National Review, 27 Sep. 2017
Thomas Jefferson had strong views on religion, but his Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom disestablished the Church of Englandand established religious liberty for Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, even pagans.
—Jonah Goldberg, Alaska Dispatch News, 27 Sep. 2017
Lance Wallnau, a Christian author, claimed God spoke to him and showed him that Trump was like King Cyrus, who followed God’s will despite being a pagan.
—Colby Itkowitz, Washington Post, 23 Aug. 2017
To do Trumpzilla justice, the film should be blustery, spectacular, gold-garish, and neo-pagan, a Circus Maximus Cecil B. DeMille might have whipped up with his riding crop after a fever dream.
—James Wolcott, HWD, 19 June 2017
Kristine Phillips, The Indianapolis Star, 13 Nov. 2024
Defense attorneys for Allen have argued authorities arrested the wrong person and claimed that Odinism, a pagan Norse religion that has been linked to White supremacist groups, could be a theory connected to the killings, court documents show.
—Nicole Chavez, CNN, 18 Oct. 2024
In a memorandum released last year, Allen's attorneys outlined an alternate theory of the girls' killings, saying evidence found at the scene mimicked rituals from a pagan Norse religion called Odinism.
—Jenny Porter Tilley, The Indianapolis Star, 14 Oct. 2024
There’s a lot of folklore, superstition and myth — pagan elements really, that are folded into how people actually practice religion in Ireland.
—Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
Overshadowing the square, the Gothic St. Rumbold’s Cathedral was built between 1200 and 1520 to house the remains of local saint Rumbold, who, in the sixth century, converted pagan German tribes to Christianity.
—Barbara Noe Kennedy, Travel + Leisure, 18 June 2024
Baldwin and Rozzi had alleged that members of Odinism, a pagan Norse religion hijacked by white nationalists, are the real killers who ritually sacrificed the teens ― a theory that Allen's new defense team believes has merit.
—The Indianapolis Star, 12 Jan. 2024
The Prophet Muhammad, having conquered all of Arabia in 630, clearing Mecca of its pagan idols in the process, went back two years later on a triumphant pilgrimage.
—Aatish Taseer, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2023
Freud died the next day, surrounded by his pagan gods.
—Elizabeth Winkler, The New Yorker, 23 June 2023
Dictionary Entries Near pagan
Cite this Entry
“Pagan.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pagan. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
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pagan
noun
Noun
Middle English pagan "heathen," from Latin paganus (same meaning), from earlier paganus "person who lives in a rural area," from pagus "village, district"
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