perdition
[per-dish-uh n]
- a state of final spiritual ruin; loss of the soul; damnation.
- the future state of the wicked.
- hell(def 1).
- utter destruction or ruin.
- Obsolete. loss.
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Origin of perdition
1300–50; < Latin perditiōn- (stem of perditiō) destruction, equivalent to perdit(us) (past participle of perdere to do in, ruin, lose, equivalent to per- per- + di-, combining form of dare to give + -tus past participle suffix) + -iōn -ion; replacing Middle English perdiciun < Old French < Latin, as above
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
abysspurgatoryruincondemnationsufferingdamnationafflictionunderworldinfernopitpunishmentGehennaHadesAbaddonExamples from the Web for perdition
Historical Examples
He would tell me to go to perdition, probably, and I shouldn't blame him.
Kent Knowles: QuahaugJoseph C. Lincoln
Perdition to the land where a man could not live unless he was a skunk or a cur.
The ManxmanHall Caine
If was the world against Kate, let the world go to perdition.
The ManxmanHall Caine
Since she went I know what perdition means; what darkness is.
An Outcast of the IslandsJoseph Conrad
He resisted, as though I had been forcing him over the brink of perdition.
RomanceJoseph Conrad and F.M. Hueffer
perdition
- Christianity
- final and irrevocable spiritual ruin
- this state as one that the wicked are said to be destined to endure for ever
- another word for hell
- archaic utter disaster, ruin, or destruction
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Word Origin
C14: from Late Latin perditiō ruin, from Latin perdere to lose, from per- (away) + dāre to give
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for perdition
n.
mid-14c., "fact of being lost or destroyed," from Old French perdicion "loss, calamity, perdition" of souls (11c.) and directly from Late Latin perditionem (nominative perditio) "ruin, destruction," noun of action from past participle stem of Latin perdere "do away with, destroy; lose, throw away, squander," from per- "through" (here perhaps with intensive or completive force, "to destruction") + dare "to put" (see date (n.1)). Special theological sense of "condition of damnation, spiritual ruin, state of souls in Hell" (late 14c.) has gradually extinguished the general use of the word.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper