pariah
Valid in Scrabble
- Scrabble points
- 11
- Words With Friends
- 11
- Letters
- 6
Definition of pariah
3 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included
noun
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Synonym of outcast: A person despised and excluded by their family, community, or society, especially a member of the untouchable castes in Indian society.
“What is this smoking that it should be considered a crime? I believe in my heart that women are jealous of it, as of a rival. They speak of it as of some secret, awful vice that seizes upon a man, and makes him a Pariah from genteel society.”
“I’m a pariah, outlawed from Time Lord society.”
“[…] I went from being a much-feted author to a pariah, since one of the many problems of being trashed on the front page of the New York Times is that everyone is in the know.”
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noun
-
Synonym of outcast: A person despised and excluded by their family, community, or society, especially a member of the untouchable castes in Indian society.
“What is this smoking that it should be considered a crime? I believe in my heart that women are jealous of it, as of a rival. They speak of it as of some secret, awful vice that seizes upon a man, and makes him a Pariah from genteel society.”
“I’m a pariah, outlawed from Time Lord society.”
“[…] I went from being a much-feted author to a pariah, since one of the many problems of being trashed on the front page of the New York Times is that everyone is in the know.”
-
(figuratively)A similarly despised group of people or species of animal.
“As ecological conditions became unfavorable for pig raising, there was no alternative function which could redeem its existence. The creature became not only useless, but worse than useless—harmful, a curse to touch or merely to see—a pariah animal.”
“This scenario could lead to war crimes the scale of which has not been seen in Europe since the Nazis — crimes that would make Vladimir Putin, his cronies and Russia as a country all global pariahs.”
- (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis)Ellipsis of pariah dog (“an Indian breed, any stray dog in Indian contexts”).
Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.
Etymology
From Tamil பறையர் (paṟaiyar), from பறையன் (paṟaiyaṉ, “drummer”), from பறை (paṟai, “drum”) or from Malayalam പറയർ (paṟayaṟ), from പറയൻ (paṟayaṉ, “drummer”), from പറ (paṟa, “drum”). Parai in Tamil or Para…
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From Tamil பறையர் (paṟaiyar), from பறையன் (paṟaiyaṉ, “drummer”), from பறை (paṟai, “drum”) or from Malayalam പറയർ (paṟayaṟ), from പറയൻ (paṟayaṉ, “drummer”), from പറ (paṟa, “drum”). Parai in Tamil or Para in Malayalam refers to a type of large drum designed to announce the king’s notices to the public. The people who made a living using the parai were called paraiyar; in the caste-based society, they were in the lower strata, hence the derisive paraiah and pariah. Alternatively, derived from Sanskrit पर (para, “distant; outsider”).
Words you can make from pariah
31 playable · top: RAPHIA (11 pts)
Best play raphia 11 points4-letter words
7 words3-letter words
15 words2-letter words
8 wordsHooks
1 extension · 1 back
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