Why this word is great
ICONODULE — [Noun] A defender of the veneration of religious icons, specifically during the Byzantine theological wars over sacred imagery. Borrowed from Ancient Greek εἰκονόδουλος (eikonódoulos), a compound of εἰκών (eikṓn, "likeness, image") + δοῦλος (doûlos, "slave"), literally meaning "slave to images". Unlike an iconoclast, who shatters the sacred portrait, or an iconolater, who is accused of worshipping the wood and paint, the iconodule champions the icon as a permissible window for a devotional gaze. It is the worn thumb tracing a gilded halo on aged wood, the intellectual risking exile to defend a painted gaze, and the humble candle lit before a wooden panel—a faith that finds its bridge to the divine not in negation, but in a face one can look upon. To be an iconodule is to believe the world is not a prison from which to escape, but a lexicon of signs through which something greater whispers.