Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Intended to ward off evil.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Possessing the property of an apotropaion; having the reputed power of averting evil influences.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Intended to ward off evil.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having the power to prevent evil or bad luck

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Greek apotropaios, from apotrepein, to ward off : apo-, apo- + trepein, to turn; see trep- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ἀποτρόπαιος (apotropaios), from ἀποτρέπω.

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Examples

  • Looking through the exhibition checklist for the show (see previous post) at the Corning Museum of Glass, I came across the term "apotropaic", referring to "objects such as amulets and talismans or other symbols intended to 'ward off evil' or 'avert or combat evil.'" [wiki] The term apotrope comes from the Greek meaning "to turn away", and seems to express itself a great deal in eye symbology.

    Archive 2007-09-01 Heather McDougal 2007

  • Looking through the exhibition checklist for the show (see previous post) at the Corning Museum of Glass, I came across the term "apotropaic", referring to "objects such as amulets and talismans or other symbols intended to 'ward off evil' or 'avert or combat evil.'" [wiki] The term apotrope comes from the Greek meaning "to turn away", and seems to express itself a great deal in eye symbology.

    Apotropaism and the Evil Eye Heather McDougal 2007

  • Linda Seidel has shown, for instance, that Van Eyck's famous Arnolfini portrait is best understood as something like a marriage contract, and the "cave canem" inscription on the fierce dog mosaics at Pompeii (often cited by Gombrich as examples of "apotropaic" imagery) seems redundant in view of the image.

    Notes, Mitchell, "Ekphrasis and the Other" 1997

  • But the term "apotropaic" is generally used of expulsive ceremonies in which a whole community takes part.

    Introduction to the History of Religions Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV Crawford Howell Toy 1877

  • The carving which induces the magical substitution has not only a sheltering (or passive, apotropaic) role to play.

    Experience, Figuration, the Avant-Garde, My Grouse : Ange Mlinko : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation 2007

  • What is odd about Achilles' shield in this context, however, is that it does not contain an apotropaic image, but an encyclopedic vision of the Homeric world, filled with narrative scenes rather like those we find on Keats's urn.

    Ekphrasis and the Other William John Thomas 1994

  • Indeed, at least one of our canonical psalms was used for such “apotropaic purposes,” that is, to counteract evil.

    In the Valley of the Shadow James L. Kugel 2011

  • Indeed, at least one of our canonical psalms was used for such “apotropaic purposes,” that is, to counteract evil.

    In the Valley of the Shadow James L. Kugel 2011

  • Indeed, at least one of our canonical psalms was used for such “apotropaic purposes,” that is, to counteract evil.

    In the Valley of the Shadow James L. Kugel 2011

  • Indeed, at least one of our canonical psalms was used for such “apotropaic purposes,” that is, to counteract evil.

    In the Valley of the Shadow James L. Kugel 2011

Comments

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  • Great word use it all the time, keeps those damn witches away.

    May 19, 2008

  • JM is in the market for some new apotropaic strategies.

    January 10, 2011

  • "A forty-dollar tangerine of nutmeat

    ribboned by slender Greek

    fingers of lovers so charmed

    his coiffed stubble matched her armpit hairs

    was handed to me, apotropaically,"

    from "Epicurean" by Danielle Chapman, in the New Yorker, p 97 of the November 21, 2011 issue

    December 8, 2011

  • "The story earns its place among sacred, apotropaic texts and the ranks of amulets and talismans . . ."

    Marina Warner,"The Library in Fiction," in Alice Crawford, ed., The Meaning of the Library: A Cultural History (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2015), p. 165

    "Vows, blessings, curses, apotropaic and expiatiory formulae, repeated and performed in the correct way, place language at the center of ritual . . . ."

    Id., p. 170

    October 30, 2015