All 4 Uses
heathen
in
The Scarlet Letter
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- Why, look you, she may cover it with a brooch, or such like heathenish adornment, and so walk the streets as brave as ever!†
p. 49.5 *
- I have met with grievous mishaps by sea and land, and have been long held in bonds among the heathen-folk to the southward; and am now brought hither by this Indian to be redeemed out of my captivity.†
p. 58.8heathen = someone who is not civilized or not moral OR an offensive term for a person who does not believe in a preferred religion
- Such was the sympathy of Nature—that wild, heathen Nature of the forest, never subjugated by human law, nor illumined by higher truth—with the bliss of these two spirits!†
p. 189.9
- My one sufficient object was to greet that pious friend of mine, the Apostle Eliot, and rejoice with him over the many precious souls he hath won from heathendom!†
p. 207.1
Definitions:
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(1)
(heathen) an often offensive (sometimes humorous) word for someone seen as uncivilized or immoral, especially because she does not share the speaker’s religion or comes from a culture unfamiliar with itThis word is usually judgmental or insulting, so today it is used mostly in joking contexts or when describing older attitudes.
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(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) More rarely, heathen can refer to a person who lacks culture or good taste.