apotropaic

From Ancient Greek ἀποτρόπαιος (apotrópaios), from ἀπό (apó, “away”) and τρόπος (trópos, “turn”); thus meaning “causing things to turn away”, as in “turns away evil”.

• IPA^(key): /ˌæpətɹəˈpeɪ.ɪk/

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apotropaic (comparative more apotropaic, superlative most apotropaic)

1. (religion, mysticism) Intended to ward off evil. [from 1883]
   • 2007 August 12, Christopher Hitchens, “Harry Potter: The Boy Who Lived”, in New York Times‎:

     A boring subtext, about the wisdom or otherwise of actually uttering Voldemort's name, meanwhile robs the apotropaic device of its force.

   • 2010, Mary Beard, chapter 7, in Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town:

     In earlier generations scholars reacted by removing many of these objects from public view, putting them in the ‘Secret Cabinet’ of the museum at Naples or otherwise under wraps. […] More recently the fashion has been to deflect attention from their sexuality by referring to them as ‘magical’, ‘apotropaic’ or ‘averters of the evil eye’.

   • 2015, Matthew Champion, Medieval Graffiti: The Lost Voices of England’s Churches, London: Ebury Press, →ISBN, page 25:

     Commonly known as ‘ritual protection marks’, or even ‘witch marks’, an apotropaic image or symbol is a marking that is thought to create a ‘protection’ for the individual that created it – or for the area or object into which it was inscribed.

apotropaic (plural apotropaics)

1. An agent intended to ward off evil.

Borrowed from French apotropaïque.

apotropaic m or n (feminine singular apotropaică, masculine plural apotropaici, feminine and neuter plural apotropaice)

1. apotropaic