anathema

Dictionary

anathema |əˈnaθəmə|

noun

1 something or someone that one vehemently dislikes : racial hatred was anathema to her.

2 a formal curse by a pope or a council of the Church, excommunicating a person or denouncing a doctrine. • poetic/literary a strong curse : the sergeant clutched the ruined communicator, muttering anathemas. ORIGIN early 16th cent.: from ecclesiastical Latin, ‘excommunicated person, excommunication,’ from Greek anathema ‘thing dedicated,’ (later) ‘thing devoted to evil, accursed thing,’ from anatithenai ‘to set up.’

Thesaurus

anathema

noun

a nation viewed as a sponsor of terrorism, which is anathema in the West an abomination, an outrage, an abhorrence, a disgrace, an evil, a bane, a bugbear, a bête noire; adjectives abhorrent, hateful, repugnant, odious, repellent, offensive.