apostate

n.
One who has abandoned one's religious faith, a political party, one's principles, or a cause.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin apostata, from Greek apostatēs, from aphistanai, to revolt. See apostasy.]

apostate a·pos'tate' adj.

(uh-POS-tayt, -tit)

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

Etymology
From Middle French, from Late Latin apostata, from Greek aposta (to stand off)

Usage
"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;

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According to New York Times columnist Frank Rich, some members of the right who formerly believed in President Bush are finding it hard to maintain that belief:

"The Miers nomination, whatever its fate, will be remembered as the flashpoint when the faith-based Bush base finally started to lose faith in our propaganda president and join the apostate American majority."

Link: The Faith-Based President Defrocked

Posted October 11, 2005.

See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words.

noun

A person who has defected: defector, deserter, recreant, renegade, runagate, tergiversator, turncoat. Informal rat. See approach/retreat.

n

Definition: traitor
Antonyms: adherent, faithful, loyalist

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A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce

n.

A leech who, having penetrated the shell of a turtle only to find that the creature has long been dead, deems it expedient to form a new attachment to a fresh turtle.

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - apostat, frafalden
adj. - frafalden

Nederlands (Dutch)
afvallig(e)

Français (French)
n. - apostat(e)
adj. - apostat(e)

Deutsch (German)
n. - Abtrünniger
adj. - abtrünnig

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (θρησκ., μτφ.) αποστάτης, εξωμότης

Italiano (Italian)
apostata

Português (Portuguese)
n. - apóstata (m) (f), renegado (m)

Русский (Russian)
отступник, ренегат

Español (Spanish)
n. - apóstata
adj. - apóstata

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - avfälling

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
变节者, 脱党者, 背教者, 变节的, 脱党的, 背教的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 變節者, 脫黨者, 背教者
adj. - 變節的, 脫黨的, 背教的

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 배교자[배신자]
adj. - 배신적인[반당적인]

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 背教者, 変節者
adj. - 背教した, 背教の

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مرتد‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מומר, בוגד, משומד‬
adj. - ‮מומר‬

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