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apotropaic

adj
/ˌæpətɹəˈpeɪ.ɪk/

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἀποτρόπαιος (apotrópaios), from ἀπό (apó, “away”) and τρόπος (trópos, “turn”); thus meaning “causing things to turn away”, as in “turns away evil”.

  1. borrowed from ἀποτρόπαιος

Definitions

  1. Intended to ward off evil.

    • Wormwood [...] was associated with the rites of St. John's Eve, when a crown of the plant was made from its sprays for apotropaic purposes, to ward of malefic spirits.
    • A boring subtext, about the wisdom or otherwise of actually uttering Voldemort's name, meanwhile robs the apotropaic device of its force.

  2. An agent intended to ward off evil.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for apotropaic. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA