Before we explore the exciting word iconoclast, now would be a good time to think about what it means for something to be an icon, or to have iconicstature.
As a kid, I thought an icon was just a symbol to double-click on. So I'll mention, for the benefit of our younger readers, that an icon is also somebody or something that almost everyone knows about and recognizes--like Nike; McDonald's; Star Wars; and Martin Luther King, Jr. Those things, and people, are iconic. We all know them.
An icon can also be a religious thing: a painting or other representation of some holy figure, and the painting itself is thought of as holy, too. You can imagine how infuriating it would be if someone broke into your church and smashed your icons. That's what iconoclasts do--more or less. Someone who comes along and, figuratively speaking, smashes Star Wars, saying it's a terrible franchise and boring to boot, is an iconoclast: an uprooter, a heretic, a dissenter, a dissident, anan_____ist. (Rebel scum!)
Can you recall that last one? It has Greek roots that mean "one who struggles against," or "one who competes against."
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
The word "iconoclast" has Greek roots that mean "image breaker."
Centuries ago, the first iconoclasts were people who took down images and idols from churches, probably because they believed these symbols shouldn't be used in religious worship.
More loosely, today, an iconoclast is a person who disagrees with, and even attacks, the beliefs and traditions that most people stick to.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
It's usually a noun, the countable kind: "He's an iconoclast;" "It's a club full of iconoclasts."
Other forms:
The only one we bump into often is the plural noun, "iconoclasts."
Sometimes we use "iconoclast" loosely like an adjective, as in "iconoclast vandalism," "iconoclast thinking."
But there's a true adjective also: "iconoclastic." Its adverb is "iconoclastically."
And the noun for the idea is "iconoclasm." Here's the Washington Post: "this recent wave of iconoclasm."
how to use it:
Depending on your tone when you use the word "iconoclast," it can be a sharp criticism or an offhand compliment. Iconoclasts might shock us and offend us--or they might strike us as cool, brave, and heroic.
Either way, when you call someone an iconoclast, you're suggesting that they've been pushing back hard against the mainstream, that they've fought tooth and nail against the establishment, that they've smashed the symbols of "the man," or that they've worked hard to dismantle the complex, powerful, longstanding social systems that they think are wrong or unjust.
To put that a different way, iconoclasts aren't just posting on Facebook about how the world needs to change. They're out there, changing it, smashing it into shape. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing depends on your point of view.
You might refer to someone as an iconoclast. Here's the Guardian: "The director is a cultural iconoclast with an ability to shift our perceptions."
Or, you might talk about iconoclasts in general as a group. Here's the New York Times: "True iconoclasts don't think the way the rest of us do."
"In a new spirit of iconoclasm, thousands of buildings, monuments and statues dedicated to American sinners of the past must be destroyed, removed or renamed."
— Victor Davis Hanson, Fox News, 19 September 2019
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Thanks for letting me know! If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
study it:
Explain the meaning of "iconoclast" without saying "one who rages against the machine" or "anti-traditionalist."
try it out:
As Natureexplains, Raymond Dart was a classic iconoclast. He was the one who discovered Australopithecus africanus, a link between humans and apes. His fellow scientists weren't happy with him: they "considered the human forerunner to be the British specimen known as Piltdown Man," and so they rejected his work for publication. Outside his field, others saw him as an even worse iconoclast. Religious fundamentalists sent him threatening letters, angry at him for believing that man descended from apes in the first place. "Happily," Nature says, Dart "lived long enough to see his initially iconoclastic ideas become widely accepted."
With Dart in mind as an example, talk about another iconoclast from history, from fiction, or from the public sphere today. What beliefs made (or still make) this person so iconoclastic?
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game this month is "Faces & Feelings."
If the word you're studying were a facial expression, what would it look like? Maybe one of the seven universal facial expressions, the ones identified by the psychologist Paul Ekman.
In each issue, take a handful of words and assign each to an emotion it inspires. I'll list my answers at the bottom of each issue. Yours might be different from mine, which is okay--words, and emotions, are complex and personal! The goal here is just to interact with our words, to tie them more securely into memory by connecting them to emotion and to the face.
Try this set today. Match each face on the left to a term on the right:
2. I think the Black Eyed Peas were talking about partying, not iconoclasm, when they sang "_____." But "I Gotta Feeling" is a pretty good anthem for iconoclasts anyway.
A. Easy come, easy go
B. Go out and smash it, smash it
C. I got my money, let's spend it up
Answers to review questions:
1. A
2. B
Suggested answers to game questions:
joy: bonhomie
surprise: blitzkrieg
contempt: bete noire
sadness: bereft
anger: bilk
disgust: bloviate
fear: baleful
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
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I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.