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ANATHEMA

                                              February 6, 2007

According to the wikipedia article,
the word "anathema" originally was
a greek term meaning an offering to
the gods.

This is a great example of a word
that's done a near complete reversal
of meaning, now it means something
more like "accursed".

The one common thread between the two
meanings is the notion of being "set
apart", untouchable, "off limits"...

Supposedly that's how the reversal
occurred, "anathema" was pressed into
service as a translation of a quite
different hebrew word "herem" with
different connotations.

  A definition fixed on one axis,
  and spinning into a different
  orientation...

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