# heathen

Pronunciation: say "HEE-thuhn" /ˈhiːðən/

## Noun

1. A pagan; a person who is not Christian, Jewish or Muslim, and in some uses not of any other monotheistic faith either; loosely, anyone seen as having no religion.
   - Simple: A person who is not a Christian, a Jew or a Muslim, or someone seen as having no religion.
   - _In the old saga, the king's priests called every foreigner a heathen._
   - _The missionaries sailed to the islands hoping to convert the heathens they had heard about._
3. A person regarded as uncultured or uncivilized; a philistine.
   - Simple: A person who does not know or care about art, good manners or good taste.
   - _Only a heathen would put ketchup on a steak this good._
   - _My roommates are heathens who think opera is just loud singing._
5. Alternative letter-case form of Heathen: a follower of Heathenry, a modern religion reviving the pre-Christian beliefs of the Germanic peoples.
   - Simple: Alternative letter-case form of Heathen. Used for a follower of Heathenry, a modern faith based on the old Germanic religion.
   - _As a heathen, she marks the old Germanic festivals with a small group of fellow believers._
   - _He describes himself as a heathen and keeps a small shrine to Odin in his garden._

## Adjective

2. Not following an Abrahamic religion such as Christianity, Judaism or Islam; pagan.
   - Simple: Not belonging to the Christian, Jewish or Muslim faith.
   - _The chapel was built on the site of an old heathen temple._
   - _Some heathen customs lived on in the village festivals long after the people became Christian._
4. Uncultured or uncivilized; savage or barbarous.
   - Simple: Wild and rough, without good manners or culture.
   - _Eating pizza with a knife and fork struck him as a heathen habit._
   - _Waking the whole house at five on a Sunday is a heathen thing to do._
6. Alternative letter-case form of Heathen: of or relating to Heathenry, a modern religion reviving the pre-Christian beliefs of the Germanic peoples.
   - Simple: Alternative letter-case form of Heathen. Used for things that belong to Heathenry, a modern faith based on the old Germanic religion.
   - _The festival drew members of several heathen groups devoted to the old Norse gods._
   - _She writes a blog about modern heathen practice and its revival of Germanic rites._

## Origin

From Middle English hethen, from Old English hǣþen, from Proto-Germanic *haiþīnaz ("heathen, pagan"), usually explained as heath ("heathland") + -en. It is related to Dutch heiden, German Heiden, Swedish heden and Icelandic heiðinn.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/heathen (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).