Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One who is not a Christian, Muslim, or Jew, especially an adherent of a polytheistic religion in antiquity.
- n. A Neo-Pagan.
- n. Offensive One who has no religion.
- n. Offensive A non-Christian.
- n. A hedonist.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One who is not a Christian or a member of a Christian community; in a later narrower sense, one who does not worship the true God—that is, is not a Christian, a Jew, or a Mohammedan; a heathen. See the quotation from Trench; see also paynim.
- n. A heathenish or ungodly person; in old slang, a prostitute.
- n. Synonyms Heathen, etc. See gentile, n.
- Pertaining to the worship or worshipers of any religion which is neither Christian, Jewish, nor Mohammedan; heathenish; irreligious.
Wiktionary
- adj. Relating to, characteristic of or adhering to non-Abrahamist religions, especially earlier polytheism.
- adj. by extension Savage, immoral, uncivilized, wild.
- n. A person not adhering to any major or recognized religion, especially a heathen or non-Abrahamist, follower of a pantheistic or nature-worshipping religion, neopagan.
- n. by extension An uncivilized or unsocialized person
- n. Especially an unruly, badly educated child.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One who worships false gods; an idolater; a heathen; one who is neither a Christian, a Mohammedan, nor a Jew.
- adj. Of or pertaining to pagans; relating to the worship or the worshipers of false goods; heathen; idolatrous, .
WordNet 3.0
- n. someone motivated by desires for sensual pleasures
- n. a person who does not acknowledge your god
- n. a person who follows a polytheistic or pre-Christian religion (not a Christian or Muslim or Jew)
- adj. not acknowledging the God of Christianity and Judaism and Islam
Etymologies
- Recorded in English since c1375. From Latin pāgānus ("rural, rustic"), later "civilian". The meaning "not (Judeo-)Christian" arose in Vulgar Latin, probably from the 4th century. It is unclear whether this usage is derived primarily from the "rustic" or from the "civilian" meaning, which in Roman army jargon meant 'clumsy'. As a self-designation of neopagans attested since 1990. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Late Latin pāgānus, from Latin, country-dweller, civilian, from pāgus, country, rural district. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The word pagan comes from the Latin word paganus, meaning “country dweller,” or peasant.”
“Linguistically, the word pagan derives from the Latin word "paganus", which means "a villager", or a "country dweller".”
“Mr. Caldigate should be what he called a pagan had been represented by Mr. Bromley to his friends as a great misfortune, and especially”
“In spite of the fact that he was an Asiatic by nature, he despised what he called the pagan ceremonies of the ritualists, and distrusted what he felt to be the atheistic tendency of science.”
“The worship of all other gods the Christians held to be sinful idol-worship, a deadly sin in the eyes of God, and they were willing to give up their lives rather than perform the simplest rite of what they termed pagan worship (R. 28).”
“These are not peculiar to what we call pagan people.”
“That Mr. Caldigate should be what he called a pagan had been represented by Mr. Bromley to his friends as a great misfortune, and especially a misfortune to the squire himself.”
“Other theories imply that the cross symbolizes the four quarters of the moon, important in pagan ritual.”
“And pagan is too generic, and I don't think appropriate for the story I need this for.”
“The word pagan simply means country-dweller, although many contemporary neo-pagans are urban dwellers, as were many pagans in classical times.”
The Huffington Post: Elizabeth Cunningham: Honoring the Elements: The Pagan Roots of Religion
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pagan’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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EN - newSPEAK
Buzzwords of our time
actionable, administrivia, advermation, agreeance, backbone provider, back-sourcing, baked in, bandwidth, barn raising, Barneyware, belly-buttons, Below Zeros and 1078 more...
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January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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Imbible Code ✞
Christian word branding; common English word-associatives connected to Bible terminology or scripture.
I also have a general Bible-word list.god, father, son, trinity, sacrament, knowledge, serpent, flood, evil, good, spirit, revelation and 118 more...
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Anagram Weapons
I'm looking for single-word anagrams of weapon names. Your additions are welcomed. A spoilt pilot's pistol to the best submitted.
This list was born when I noticed oppugn was an anagra...pagan, reaps, enraged, admires, repair, words, spoilt, pilots, ragged, flier, pears, oppugn and 20 more...
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Unwording
Outlawed words and books, like this.
samizdat, satanic verses, profanity, oriental, antilanguage, biddy, aviatrix, squaw, deaf-mute, border patrolman, cassandra, niggardly and 45 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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fasten-ating
a reflection on the Indo-European root pag & pak to fasten
peace, pay, patio, fay, fang, impact, pax, newfangled, pagan, peasant, pectin, spinto and 58 more...
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Favorite Words
symbologist, articulate, sushi, chinchilla, flagrant, cosmic, perforate, alacrity, gooseflesh, xenophobic, bamboozle, squirrel and 90 more...
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amagnano's Words
truculent, churlish, antipathy, sociopathy, loquacious, disheveled, pouilly-fuisse, enamored, marked, assuage, ascetic, pagan and 190 more...
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candy cane heroin
sex, sexual, branden, rozz, candy cane, candy canes, cotton candy, may day, may, taurus, heroin, love and 134 more...
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mager's Words
enigmatic, pragmatic, pulchritudinous, nincompoop, annihilation, sociality, entailment, acrosome, egalitarian, culture, technocracy, shenanigan and 541 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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polymorph's Words
pornerastic, yeaux, enantiadromia, synchronicity, transubstantiation, sensimilla, slough, scaphism, symbiosis, prolix, orgiastic, cryptogamic and 245 more...
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And another
retrocausality, brusque, gainsay, cheerio, jaundiced, chamois, caw, craw, fudge, bubbler, shebang, bolo and 244 more...
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madmelanie's Words
monkey, folderol, snark, snarky, flibbertigibbet, faith, asshat, pirouette, avuncular, exegesis, memento mori, verisimilitude and 379 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for pagan.
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