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heathen

Pronunciation: /ˈhiːðən/

The English word “heathen” has 4 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. Not adhering to an Abrahamic religion; pagan.
  2. Uncultured; uncivilized; savage; barbarian.

noun

  1. A pagan; someone who is neither Christian, Jewish, nor Muslim (other Abrahamic or monotheistic religions may or may not be included)
  2. An uncultured or uncivilized person, philistine.

Etymology

From Middle English hethen, from Old English hǣþen, from Proto-West Germanic *haiþin, from Proto-Germanic *haiþīnaz (“heathen, pagan”, adjective), equivalent to heath (“heathland”) + -en. Cognate with West Frisian heiden, Dutch heiden, Middle High German heiden, German Heiden, German Heide, Swedish heden, Danish hedensk (from heden + -sk), Icelandic heiðinn. See also Proto-Germanic *haiduz, Old…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.