Question: Every time I read or hear the word "anathema" I have to look it up. Could you please tell me about the origin of this word, so that maybe I'll be able to remember its meaning?Answer: The word "anathema" is of Greek origin, deriving from the verb "anatithenai," which means "to set up, dedicate." "Anathema" was used in the Old Testament originally to mean "something offered (that is, placed on high in the temples) to God," and in the early use it could have referred to a revered object or an object representing a destruction brought about in the name of the Lord. Such was the use in this passage from Judith (16:22-23, Douay): "And it came to pass after these things, that all the people, after the victory, came to Jerusalem to adore the Lord: and as soon as they were purified, they all offered holocausts, and vows, and their promises. And Judith offered for an anathema of oblivion all the arms of Holofernes, which the people gave her, and the canopy that she had taken away out of his chamber." Here we see that what was offered up as an anathema were the spoils of war, representing the destruction of the enemy Holofernes.
"Anathema" ultimately came to represent something odious or accursed. This development is not surprising since "anathema" translates the Hebrew word "herem," which comes from a verb "haram," "to cut off; separate, curse." The following passage from Deuteronomy (7:26, Douay) exemplifies this use: "Neither shalt thou bring anything of the idol into thy house, lest thou become an anathema, like it. Thou shalt detest it as dung, and shalt utterly abhor it as uncleanness and filth, because it is an anathema."
In the New Testament, St. Paul uses the term in the sense of a curse and the forced exclusion of one from the community of Christians. In the early Church "anathema" was used interchangeably with "excommunication" and was pronounced chiefly against unrepentant heretics. In the 6th century, "anathema" came to mean the severest form of excommunication, in which the person is judged to be "condemned to eternal fire with Satan and his angels and all the reprobate, so long as he will not burst the fetters of the demon, do penance, and satisfy the Church" (Roman Pontifical). All of the church councils since the Council of Nicaea have worded their dogmatic canons to include the sentence "If anyone says . . . let him be anathema."
Among the more famous anathemas were those of 1054, the year of the schism between the Eastern and Western Churches. The pope's legate to Constantinople, Cardinal Humbert, issued an anathema against Patriarch Michael Cerularios, who in retaliation issued a similar one against the cardinal. These mutual anathemas have often been considered the final consummation of the schism. Although this schism has never been healed, in 1965 Pope Paul VI and the ecumenical patriarch Athenagoras I nullified the mutual anathemas of 1054.
In English, the word "anathema" has been and continues to be used in its ecclesiastical sense. By the 18th century, however, its use in a weakened sense for "the denunciation of anything as accursed" is attested. That secular use continues to be common. Joseph W. Scott provided an example in a 1969 magazine article: "Anathema to the university, with its long-standing tradition of humanism, are all the trappings of the military life."
Question: The word "zoftic" or "szoftic" (I'm not sure of the exact spelling) pops up in my crossword puzzles occasionally. It is used in reference to a well-built woman. What is the correct spelling and where does it come from?
Answer: The word you're looking for is "zaftig," also spelled "zoftig." We define it in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary as "having a full rounded figure; pleasingly plump." It comes to English via a Yiddish word "zaftik," meaning "juicy," and its roots go back to the ancient Germanic languages.
This column was prepared by the editors of Merriam-Webster's "Collegiate Dictionary," Tenth Edition. Send questions to: Merriam-Webster's Wordwatch, P.O. Box 281, 47 Federal St., Springfield, MA 01102. Merriam-Webster Inc. Dist. by Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service