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My name is David Burrows and I am a freelance translator of Spanish into English. This blog contains some of my favourite words, a (mostly) amusing explanation of said words as well as some of my musings about translation. I hope you enjoy it.

Wednesday 15 December 2010

Iconoclast

Noun:
1) A person who attacks or criticizes cherished beliefs or institutions.

2) A destroyer of images used in religious worship, in particular:
  • A supporter of the 8th and 9th century movement in the Byzantine church, which sought to abolish the veneration of icons and other religious images.
  • A puritan of the 16th or 17th century.
 Origin: Via medieval Latin from ecclesiastical Greek - from eikonoklastes, from eikon:likeness and klan:to break.
I AM THE ICONOCLAST! Well, not really, I'm that chicken who appears when the author couldn't find anything else. Bet you'd forgotten about me.

This word gets all medieval (good word although the spelling is irritating, much like the irritating spelling of irritating, actually) on your ass. If iconoclast was a person he would be over six feet tall, musclebound, gripping a broadsword and have an overwhelming sense of justice, if only to mete it out to the unworthy. All excessive Conan the Barbarian worship aside (oooo, that'll get all the faithful iconoclasts angry) there really isn't much to say about this word. Every one loves a good movement from the Byzantine church though, especially one from the 8th and 9th centuries (the best centuries, by far).
It's also yet another word that suits heavy metal music, as proved by the band Heaven Shall Burn, who used it to title their latest album and who are heavier than a really heavy thing which has been painted jet black using lead paint.

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