heresy
Pluralheresies
- 1A belief or teaching, held by someone within a religion, that goes against what that religion officially accepts.
The council condemned his teaching on grace as heresy and ordered his books burned.
Early Christian writers spent whole volumes listing and refuting the heresies of rival sects.
Similarmisbelief
Oppositeorthodoxy
Note
A word for dissent that began as a word for choice: Greek haíresis meant "a choice" or "a system of principles," from a verb meaning "to choose." The charge concerns belief, not behavior. A believer who lives badly is not a heretic for it; only one who deliberately departs from accepted doctrine is. Its opposite is orthodoxy.
- 2A group member's opinion that challenges accepted views or provokes controversy, for example in politics, philosophy, or science.
I'll offer a heresy of my own: most of our marketing budget is wasted.
Among the party's most loyal members, any talk of raising taxes was treated as heresy.
Similardissent, unorthodoxy, heterodoxy, blasphemy
Oppositeorthodoxy
Note
Politics and science borrowed the religious charge with its frame intact: there is still a group with an accepted view and a member who breaks from it. Speakers can claim the label for themselves. Frank Herbert, speaking at UCLA in 1985, announced "I'm going to declare a heresy for you" before questioning the roots of scientific belief. Said of one's own opinion, the word warns listeners that what follows goes against the grain on purpose.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English heresie, from Old French heresie (modern hérésie), from Latin haeresis, from Ancient Greek haíresis ("choice, system of principles"). This comes from hairéomai ("to take for oneself, to choose"), the middle voice of hairéō ("to take"), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ser-, which may be related to Welsh herw ("theft, raid") and Ancient Greek steréō ("to deprive of").