apostate
[uh-pos-teyt, -tit]
- a person who forsakes his religion, cause, party, etc.
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- of or characterized by apostasy.
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Origin of apostate
1300–50; Middle English < Late Latin apostata < Greek apostátēs, equivalent to aposta- (see apostasy) + -tēs noun suffix
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for apostate
Contemporary Examples
“To the fundamentalist leadership of al-Qaida, Saddam represented the worst kind of ‘apostate’ regime,” they wrote.
At first, he was sentenced to execution for being an apostate.
Wife of Jailed Saudi Blogger: My Husband Is a Victim of the Thought PoliceEnsaf Haidar, Advancing Human Rights
October 20, 2014
Godane rejects the idea of Al-Shabab negotiating with the Somali federal government, an “apostate government” he dubs it.
In an article entitled “In the words of the enemy,” it describes Obama as a “crusader, apostate.”
Because my passion so far has been exposing government-funded sacred cows and disrupting statist narratives, I am an apostate.
Historical Examples
And yet does not the wife of Lot appear to have been punished as an apostate?
Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. IFrancis Augustus Cox
The Gods have suspended their thunder over the head of the apostate.
ImogenWilliam Godwin
An apostate from the condition of a pravajita or religious mendicant.
Hindu Law and JudicatureYjnavalkya
You ask, why do these men remain in a Church which they see to be apostate?
Pilgrimage from the Alps to the TiberJames Aitken Wylie
To such depths of servility and degradation do apostate nations fall.
Public School EducationMichael Mller
apostate
- a person who abandons his religion, party, cause, etc
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- guilty of apostasy
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for apostate
n.
mid-14c., "one who forsakes his religion or faith," from Old French apostate (Modern French apostat) and directly from Late Latin apostata, from Greek apostasia "defection, desertion, rebellion," from apostenai "to defect," literally "to stand off," from apo- "away from" (see apo-) + stenai "to stand." Used in non-religious situations (politics, etc.) from mid-14c.
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adj.
late 14c.; see apostate (n.).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper