Love for Words — Iconoclast

March 21, 2014
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An iconoclast is vehement in attacking set traditions or conventions.

Definition
via TheFreeDictionary.com
1. 
One who attacks and seeks to overthrow traditional or popular ideas or institutions.

2. One who destroys sacred religious images.

Origin and history
via Online Etymology Dictionary info

From the Medieval Greek word Eikonoklastēs, from eikōn, meaning “image” and klastēs, meaning “breaker.”

During the 8th and 9th centuries, followers of the Byzantine Empire, or Eastern Roman Church, destroyed religious icons including sculptures and paintings. They formed mobs to demolish these icons, in protest that they were idols that were worshiped, over spiritual belief. During 16th and 17th century Protestants in the Netherlands vandalized old Catholic churches under similar grounds.

Usage
Iconoclasts of today attack institutions or conventional ideas, and generally use freedom of speech or expression over physically destroying property. They may write newspaper “Letters to the editor,” for example, or use social media, write prose or pencil sketches as vessels to “smash” popular icons. They attack with conviction and persistence, and are oft perceived as rebels.

Have you by chance conversed over a cup of coffee or a tipple with an iconoclast?

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