heathen

• n. 异教徒；粗野的人
• adj. 异教的；野蛮的

heath,荒地，荒野，-en,与相关。即荒野居住的人，化外之民，后用于指异教徒，比较pagan.

heathen

heathen: [OE] Etymologically, a heathen is ‘someone who lives on the heath’ – that is, someone who lives in a wild upcountry area, and is uncivilized and savage (the word was derived in prehistoric Germanic times from *khaithiz ‘heath’, and is also represented in German heide, Dutch heiden, and Swedish and Danish heden). Its specific use for ‘person who is not a Christian’ seems to have been directly inspired by Latin pāgānus (source of English pagan), which likewise originally meant ‘countrydweller’. (Etymologically, savages too were to begin with dwellers in ‘wild woodland’ areas, while civilized or urbane people lived in cities or towns.) The now archaic hoyden ‘high-spirited girl’ [16] was borrowed from Dutch heiden ‘heathen’.
=> heath, hoyden

heathen

Old English hæðen "not Christian or Jewish," also as a noun, "heathen man, one of a race or nation which does not acknowledge the God of the Bible" (especially of the Danes), merged with Old Norse heiðinn (adj.) "heathen, pagan," of uncertain origin. Cognate with Old Saxon hedhin, Old Frisian hethen, Dutch heiden, Old High German heidan, German Heiden.

Perhaps literally "dweller on the heath, one inhabiting uncultivated land;" see heath + -en (2). Historically assumed to be ultimately from Gothic haiþno "gentile, heathen woman," used by Ulfilas in the first translation of the Bible into a Germanic language (as in Mark vii:26, for "Greek"); like other basic words for exclusively Christian ideas (such as church) it likely would have come first into Gothic and then spread to other Germanic languages. If so it could be a noun use of an unrelated Gothic adjective (compare Gothic haiþi "dwelling on the heath," but a religious sense is not recorded for this). Whether native or Gothic, it may have been chosen on model of Latin paganus, with its root sense of "rural" (see pagan), or for resemblance to Greek ethne (see gentile), or it may be a literal borrowing of that Greek word, perhaps via Armenian hethanos [Sophus Bugge].

1. He preached the Gospel to the heathen locals from this spot.

他曾在这里向不信教的当地人宣讲《福音书》。

来自柯林斯例句

2. They first set out to convert the heathen.

他们首先着手使异教徒皈依。

来自柯林斯例句

3. Sometimes the rallying cry is'save the Tomb of Christ from the Heathen!'

有时喊的口号是'把基督的坟墓从异教徒手中夺回来!

来自飘（部分）

4. The heathen temple was torn down by a crowd of religions fanatics.

异教徒的神殿被一群宗教狂热分子拆除了.

来自辞典例句

5. She regarded Augustine as a very much of a heathen.

她认为奥古斯丁是个十足的异教徒.

来自辞典例句