anathema

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin anathema (“curse, person cursed, offering”), itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ἀνάθεμα (anáthema, “something dedicated, especially dedicated to eternal damnation”), from ἀνατίθημι (anatíthēmi, “I set upon, offer as a votive gift”), from ἀνά (aná, “upon”) + τίθημι (títhēmi, “I put, place”). The Ancient Greek term was influenced by Hebrew חרם (herem), leading to the sense of "accursed," especially in Ecclesiastical writers.

noun

1. (ecclesiastical, historical) A ban or curse pronounced with religious solemnity by ecclesiastical authority, often accompanied by excommunication; something denounced as accursed.
2. (by extension) Something which is vehemently disliked by somebody.
   Even three years ago, the thought of spending two hours, let alone a whole day, without my mobile would have been anathema. 18 January 2015, Monty Munford, “What’s the point of carrying a mobile phone nowadays?”, in The Daily Telegraph
   The actor, who prizes mystery, hated being gossip fodder. “That was anathema to him,” said his sister Martha Fiennes, a filmmaker, “and he just hated the curiosity into his life.” 2022-10-22, Maureen Dowd, “Ralph Fiennes, Master of Monsters”, in The New York Times
3. (literary) An imprecation; a curse; a malediction.
   I trembled at his ringing wealth Of manifold anathemas […] 1920, Edward Arlington Robinson, “The Wandering Jew”, in The Three Taverns
   That was a curse from which no flight was possible: the anathema of a man who had once known holiness. 2002, Joseph O'Conner, Star of the Sea, Vintage, published 2003, page 30
4. (ecclesiastical) Any person or thing anathematized, or cursed by ecclesiastical authority to unending punishment.
   Ἆνάθεμα, accurẛed, חרם, which the Septuagint renders Anathema, ẛignifies Perẛons or Things devoted to Deẛtruction and Extermination. The Jewiẛh Nation were now an Anathema, deẛtin'd to Deẛtruction. St. Paul to expreẛs his Affection to them, ẛays, he could wiẛh to ẛave them from it, to become an Anathema and be deẛtroy'd himẛelf. 1707, John Locke, “The Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans”, in An Essay for Understanding St. Paul's Epistles, by Consulting St. Paul Himself, Section VIII
   If any one refuses to confess that the Word of God the Father is united in hypostasis to flesh, and is one Christ with His own flesh, the same being at once both God and man, let him be anathema. 1885, “The Anathemas of Cyril in Opposition to Nestorius”, in Philip Schaff, editor, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (II), volume III