Tuesday, January 13, 2009


Word of the Day for Tuesday, January 13, 2009
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iconoclast \ahy-KON-uh-klast\, noun:
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a person who attacks cherished beliefs or institutions as foolish or wrong
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The utter irony of the B.O.'s background as an iconoclast is that he will soon be the President of the very institution that he railed against in the past!
--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog
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by 1596, from French iconoclaste, from Middle Latin iconoclastes, from Late Greek eikonoklastes, from eikon "image" + klastes "breaker," from klan "to break." Originally the word referred those in the Eastern Church in 8th and 9th centuries whose mobs of followers destroyed icons and other religious objects on the grounds that they were idols. Extended sense of "one who attacks orthodox beliefs or institutions" is first attested 1842.

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