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May 12, 2004

This week's theme
Words to describe people

This week's words
polyhistor
heteroclite
apostate
polyvalent
clodhopper

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Read it today

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apostate

noun: One who abandons his or her religion, principles, political party, or some other allegiance.

[From Middle French, from Late Latin apostata, from Greek aposta (to stand off).]

"These independent artists rue the perfidy of apostate millionaires, and moan about pop stars who abandoned the true faith."
Sasha Frere-Jones; Madvillain Redeems the Pretensions of Independent Hip-hop; New Yorker; Apr 12, 2004.

"Publicly, Saudis will be of two minds: Some will see Ferial as an apostate (in addition to being a woman of doubtful loyalty) because she has entered political life and claims to hold sway over men; and because she lives in a different environment and supports American values that permit equality between the sexes and open the doors to ethnic and religious minorities."
Hatoon Al-Fassi; A Saudi Woman Uses American Elections to Break All the Taboos; The Daily Star (Beirut, Lebanon); Apr 24, 2004;

See more usage examples of apostate in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

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