this holiday, i stumbled on a word i thought i knew..ICONOCLAST. I learned the term had first been used (extensively) in the 8/9th centuries.. when there were religious wars between the iconoclast and iconophiles.. (the iconophiles won out, eventualy, with the support of pope justine)

Milo, rightly started out discussing word (the act of saying Merry Christmas (vs seasons greatings) but the language is part of a larger iconoclast vs. iconophiles battle that is going on in society.

from merriman webster:
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=iconoclast

Main Entry: icon·o·clast
Pronunciation: -"klast
Function: noun
Etymology: Medieval Latin iconoclastes, from Middle Greek eikonoklastEs, literally, image destroyer, from Greek eikono- + klan to break -- more at CLAST
1 : one who destroys religious images or opposes their veneration
2 : one who attacks settled beliefs or institutions
and from another sourse...
http://www.bartleby.com/61/55/I0015500.html

WORD HISTORY: An iconoclast can be unpleasant company, but at least the modern iconoclast only attacks such things as ideas and institutions. The original iconoclasts destroyed countless works of art. Eikonoklasts, the ancestor of our word, was first formed in medieval Greek from the elements eikn, “image, likeness,” and –klasts, “breaker,” from kl()n, “to break.” The images referred to by the word are religious images, which were the subject of controversy among Christians of the Byzantine Empire in the 8th and 9th centuries, when iconoclasm was at its height. In addition to destroying many sculptures and paintings, those opposed to images attempted to have them barred from display and veneration. During the Protestant Reformation images in churches were again felt to be idolatrous and were once more banned and destroyed. It is around this time that iconoclast, the descendant of the Greek word, is first recorded in English (1641), with reference to the Byzantine iconoclasts. In the 19th century iconoclast took on the secular sense that it has today, as in “Kant was the great iconoclast” (James Martineau).

i read and enjoy history, but to be honest, i didn't and still don't, know anything about the iconoclasts..

i have mostly stayed out of the discussion, because i am a bit of an iconoclast.. i don't believe in destroying icons or religious images, but i think there place is in churches, and or private buildings/spaces. Not in public ones.

in language, i tend to stick with the more neutral 'seasons greeting' unless i am certain of a persons religious beliefs. i am only nomimal a christian-i feel more comfortable with the term deist to describe myself (i was raised catholic) --i left the catholic church when i realized i was unable to recite the Niacian creed and mean every word of it.



my other obsession