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Anathema
A denunciation or curse. The word is Greek, and means to
place, or set up, in allusion to the mythological custom of
hanging in the temple of a patron god something devoted to him. Thus
Gordius hung
up his yoke and beam; the shipwrecked hung up their wet clothes;
workmen retired from business hung up their tools, etc. Hence
anything set apart for destruction; and so, set apart from the
Church as under a curse.
Me tabula sacer
Votiva paries indicat uvida
Suspendisse potenti
Vestimenta maris deo.
Horace: Odes (v. 13–16).
Horace, having escaped the love-snares of Pyrrha, hangs up his
votive tablet, as one who has escaped the dangers of the sea.
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894 More on Anathema from Infoplease:
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