idolater

American  

[ahy-dol-uh-ter] / aɪˈdɒl ə tər /

Or idolator

noun

1. Also idolist a worshiper of idols.

2. a person who is an immoderate admirer; devotee.

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Usage

What does idolater mean? An idolater is someone who worships an idol or idols—objects or images, such as statues, that are worshipped as the representations of deities or gods. It is sometimes spelled idolator. A common synonym is idol worshipper. A less common synonym is idolist. The word idol can also refer to the deity or god that is being worshipped. The worship of such an idol is sometimes called idolatry (or idol worship). The adjective idolatrous can be used to describe idolaters or their practices. This sense of idolator and its related terms are typically used in a negative, judgmental way, implying that the god that the idolater worships is not actually real and that such worship is wrong or sinful. A well-known example of an idol mentioned in a story in the Bible is the statue of a golden calf that the Israelites were said to have made while Moses was away receiving the Ten Commandments (which prohibit the worship of idols or “graven images”). Sometimes, idol is used in a metaphorical way to compare something to an object of religious devotion and worship, and idolater can refer to a person who’s devoted to such a thing, as in Her love of money has made her an idolater. This sense of the word is also used in a critical way. Idol is also commonly used in a figurative way to refer to a person, especially a famous celebrity such as a pop singer, whom someone treats with extreme admiration and devotion. The word sometimes implies that such devotion is excessive, likening it to religious worship. The word idolater can be used to refer to this kind of fan, but it is much more commonly used in a religious context. Example: Followers of certain forms of Christianity are sometimes accused of being idolaters by other Christians, who object to their use of religious iconography.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• self-idolater
  noun

Etymology

Origin of idolater

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English idolatrer, equivalent to idolatr(ie) “idolatry” + -er noun suffix ( -rer changed to -er by dissimilation); see origin at idolatry, -er ²

Example Sentences

If the body be that of an Idolater it is carried out beyond the city and suburbs to a remote place assigned for the purpose, to be burnt.

From The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Yule, Henry

Thus both the Idol and Idolater equally impose upon themselves in pleasing their Imaginations this way.

From The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Addison, Joseph

Rehoboam was no Idolater; but when the people thought him an Oppressor; that Civil pretence carried from him ten Tribes to Jeroboam an Idolater.

From Leviathan by Hobbes, Thomas

Abraham was an Idolater in Vr of Chaldææa, before he was called: And Paule being called Saule, was a most sharp persecutor of the Saintes of God, while that name was changed.

From Daemonologie. by James I, King of England

Idolater to the creed of an Ancestor's NAME, has your own name that hold on the grateful respect of the Future, which men ever give to that genius whose objects are knit with mankind?

From What Will He Do with It? — Complete by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron

Related Words

• agnostic
• atheist