Word of the Day for Thursday July 18, 2002:
apostasy \uh-POS-tuh-see\, noun:
Total desertion or departure from one's faith, principles, or party.
Party loyalty was fierce, political apostasy despised, and breakaway movements and third parties rarely exercised more than temporary influence.
--Edward Ranson, "Electing a president, 1896," History Today, October 1, 1996
The French were advancing the holy cause of liberty; any American who criticized them was guilty of "apostasy" and "heresies."
--Richard Brookhiser, "In Love With Revolution," New York Times, November 17, 1996
No sooner did it become clear that this was how I really felt, and that I fully intended to carry on with the war I had started against those ideas, than the exculpatory explanation for my apostasy was dropped, and in its place came shock and a deep sense of betrayal.
--Norman Podhoretz, Ex-Friends
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Apostasy is derived from Greek apostasis, "a standing away from, a defection, a revolt," from aphistanai, "to stand off or away from, to revolt," from apo-, "from, away from" + histanai, "to stand." |
