anathema

The word anathema has two main meanings. One is to describe something or someone that is hated or avoided. The other is to refer to a formal excommunication by a church. These meanings come from the New Testament, where an anathema was a person or thing cursed or condemned by God. In the Old Testament, an anathema was something or someone dedicated to God as a sacrifice, or cursed and separated from God because of sin. These represent two types of setting apart, one for devotion, the other for destruction.