Religious words Flashcards
(10 cards)
Cardinal
Cardinal means of primary importance, fundamental.
cardinal heart => imp
primary importance, fundamental
Most cultures consider gambling a cardinal sin and thus have outlawed its practice.
Syncretic
This is a difficult word, and not one that would go on any top 1000 words you have to know for the GRE. But for those with a robust vocabulary, pay heed: if a I concoct a new religion and decide to take bits and pieces from other religions—I don a cardinal’s robe, shave my head a la Buddha, and disseminate glossy pamphlets about the coming apocalypse—I have created a syncretic religion, one that combines elements of different religions.
You can probably see where this is going with the GRE definition—which tends to offer a little more latitude. Syncretic—more generally speaking—can refer to any amalgam of different schools of thought.
Jerry the shrink takes a syncretic approach to psychotherapy: he mixes the Gestalt school with some
Jung and a healthy (or unhealthy, depending on your view) dose of Freud.
Parochial
To be parochial is to be narrow-minded in one’s view.
paro from devdas, parents narrow minded have her married unknown
Jasmine was sad to admit it, but her fledgling relationship with Jacob did not work out because his culinary tastes were simply too parochial; “After all,” she quipped on her blog, “he considered Chef Boyrdee ethnic food.”
Catholic
considering that Catholicism has a universal reach and, more
importantly, the Catholic Church conducts mass in Latin. Catholic comes from the Late Latin catholicus, which means, as you can probably guess, universal. Catholic also implies wide-ranging or all-embracing.
catholic churchs found everywhere
Jonah’s friends said that Jonah’s taste in music was eclectic; Jonah was quick to point out that not
only was his taste eclectic but it was also catholic: he enjoyed music from countries as far-flung as Mali and Mongolia.
Anathema
A few hundred years ago, many ran afoul of the church, and excommunications (and worse) were typical reprisals. If such was the case, the Pope actually uttered a formal curse against a person. This curse was called the anathema.
Today this word, in addition to a broader scope, has taken a twist. If something is anathema, he, she, or it is the source of somebody’s hate.
anath ma => being anah is a curse
Hundreds of years ago, Galileo was anathema to the church; today the church is anathema to some on the left side of the political spectrum.
Desecrate
If a person willfully violates or destroys any sacred place, he (or she) is said to desecrate it. Tombs, graves, churches, shrines and the like can all be victims of desecrations. One, however, cannot desecrate a person, regardless of how holy that person may be.
de+sacred => spoiling its sancity
The felon had desecrated the holy site, and was on the church’s Top 10 Anathema list.
Apostasy
Some believers turn against their faith and renounce it. We call this act apostasy, and those who commit it, apostates. Today the word carries a slightly broader connotation in that it can apply to politics as well.
An apostate of the Republican Party, Sheldon has yet to become affiliated with any party but dubs himself a “literal independent.”
Sanctimonious
This is a tricky word, and thus you can bet it’s one of GRE’s favorites. Sanctimonious does not mean filled with sanctity or holiness. Instead it refers to that quality that can overcome someone who feels that they are holier (read: morally superior) to everybody else.
**Pretending to be morally superior to others **— especially in a hypocritical or insincere way.
Colloquially, we hear the term holier-than-thou. That is a very apt way to describe the attitude of a sanctimonious person.
saint + money=> dhongi sadhu, pretentious
*Even during the quiet sanctity of evening prayer, she held her chin high, a sanctimonious sneer
forming on her face as she eyed those who were attending church for the first time.
🔹 The senator’s sanctimonious speech about family values was undermined by his scandal.
🔹 He grew tired of her sanctimonious tone whenever they discussed money.
🔹 The film mocks sanctimonious characters who use religion as a shield for bad behavior.
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Iconoclast
This is an interesting word. The definition that relates to the church is clearly negative, i.e. an iconoclast** is one who destroys religious images**. Basically, this definition applies to the deranged drunk who goes around desecrating icons of the Virgin Mary.
The applicability of this definition to GRE is clearly suspect. The second definition, however, happens to be one of the GRE’s top 100 words. An iconoclast—more broadly speaking—is somebody who attacks cherished beliefs or institutions. This use of the word is not necessarily negative:
A person who challenges or attacks traditional beliefs, customs, or institutions
icon + clast => icon breaker
*According to some scholars, art during the 19th century had stagnated into works aimed to please fusty art academies; it took the iconoclasm of Vincent Van Gogh to inject fresh life into the effete world of painting.
🔹 Galileo was an iconoclast who defied the Church to support heliocentrism.
🔹 The artist earned fame as an iconoclast who rejected all classical forms.
🔹 Her iconoclastic ideas shook up the conservative academic world.
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