heretic

• hæretic, heretike (archaic)
• hæretick, heretick (obsolete)

From Middle English heretyk, heretike, from Old French eretique, from Medieval Latin or Ecclesiastical Latin haereticus, from Ancient Greek αἱρετικός (hairetikós, “able to choose, factious”), itself from Ancient Greek αἱρέω (hairéō, “I choose”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɛɹɪtɪk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

heretic (plural heretics)

1. Someone whose beliefs are contrary to the fundamental tenets of a religion they claim to belong to.
   • c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 62, lines 17–19:

     He semeth a sysmatyke
     Or els an heretike,
     For fayth in hym is faynte.

   • 1974, Thomas S. Szasz, chapter 11, in The Myth of Mental Illness, →ISBN, page 197:

     In the framework of traditional medical ethics, the patient deserves humane attention only insofar as he is potentially healthy and is willing to be healthy—just as in the framework of traditional Christian ethics, the heretic deserved humane attention only insofar as he was potentially a true believer and was willing to become one.

2. (by extension) Someone who does not conform to generally accepted beliefs or practices.

• dissident, nonconformist, sectarian, separatist, withersake

• apostate

heretic (comparative more heretic, superlative most heretic)

1. (archaic) Heretical; of or pertaining to heresy or heretics.

   Antonym: orthodox

• heresy
• heretical

• chierte, erethic, etheric, heteric, techier

See heresy.

heretic (plural heretics)

1. heretic
2. (literary style) A poet who claims to have no religion, or to disdain one.

   He's as puir as the heretic baird. ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)