anabaptize means to baptize or christen again, or to a different denomination; to rename or rechristen. It carries an Arena rating of 1443, earned across 42 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, anabaptize ranks #1,527 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #2,028 of 17,106 for Most Storied Words, #3,705 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #4,550 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words.
Why “anabaptize” is a great word
ANABAPTIZE — [Verb] To baptize or christen again, or to a different denomination; to rename or rechristen. From New Latin anabaptizāre, from Ancient Greek ἀνα- (ana-, "again") + βᾰπτῐ́ζω (baptízō, "to dip, immerse, baptize"). First attested in English in 1531. Unlike "baptize," which suggests a singular, inaugural rite, or "rechristen," which often implies a secular rededication, to anabaptize is to perform a profound and polemical doubling—a rejection of one sacred identity for another. It is the cold water poured a second time over a defiant believer's head, the legal name struck from a record to make space for a chosen one, the ritual erasure of a prior self that implies the first was insufficient—a ceremony haunted by the ghost of earlier, now-voided water.
Etymology
From New Latin anabaptizāre, from Ancient Greek ἀνα- (ana-, “again”) + βᾰπτῐ́ζω (băptĭ́zō, “to baptize”). See baptize and Anabaptist.
verb
- To baptize or christen again, or to a different denomination; to rename or rechristene.g.“To say truth, though some call their profound Ignorances, New Lights, they were better Anabaptised into the Appellation of Extinguishers; carryed about with every winde.” — 1654, Richard Whitlock, Zootomia; Or, Observations on the Present Manners of the English:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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