3 uses
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Definition
someone who is not civilized or not moral — typically said humorously
or:
an offensive term for a person who does not believe in a preferred religion — especially someone who grew up in a culture that is not familiar with the religion
or:
an offensive term for a person who does not believe in a preferred religion — especially someone who grew up in a culture that is not familiar with the religion
- War, murder, slavery, extermination, and debauchery,—this has again and again been the result of carrying civilization and the blessed gospel to the isles of the sea and the heathen without the law.Chapter 9 (2% in)
- Thus, as bard, physician, judge, and priest, within the narrow limits allowed by the slave system, rose the Negro preacher, and under him the first church was not at first by any means Christian nor definitely organized; rather it was an adaptation and mingling of heathen rites among the members of each plantation, and roughly designated as Voodooism.Chapter 10 (40% in)
- My grandfather's grandmother was seized by an evil Dutch trader two centuries ago; and coming to the valleys of the Hudson and Housatonic, black, little, and lithe, she shivered and shrank in the harsh north winds, looked longingly at the hills, and often crooned a heathen melody to the child between her knees, thus: Do ba-na co-ba, ge-ne me, ge-ne me!Chapter 14 (32% in)
There are no more uses of "heathen" in The Souls of Black Folk.
Typical Usage
(best examples)