iconomachy means hostility to images as objects of worship. It carries an Arena rating of 1638, earned across 85 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, iconomachy ranks #345 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #353 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #639 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #1,520 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words.
Why “iconomachy” is a great word
ICONOMACHY — [Noun] A state of ideological warfare against images, especially the doctrinal campaign waged against religious icons as objects of worship. From Ancient Greek εἰκονομαχία (eikonomakhía), from εἰκών (eikṓn, "likeness, image, portrait") and -μαχία (-makhía, "battle, fight"), literally meaning "war against images". First attested in English in the 1580s. Unlike iconoclasm, which names the physical act of smashing, or iconodulism, which is their reverent service, iconomachy is the war of the mind itself—the fevered theological decree read aloud in a cold stone hall, the austere whitewash spreading like a blight over a church fresco, and the silent, seething conviction that to depict the divine is to diminish it. Every culture eventually tires of its own metaphors and declares war upon them.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek εἰκονομαχία (eikonomakhía), from εἰκών (eikṓn, "likeness, image, portrait") and -μαχία (-makhía, "battle, fight"), literally meaning "war against images" or "war on icons".
noun
- Hostility to images as objects of worship.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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