Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A small image or idol representing an ancient Semitic household god.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A household image reverenced by the ancient Hebrews: in the Bible used only in the plural, and sometimes applied to one image.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun See
teraphim .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun an
image of aSemitic household god
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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The spirit of the English language, the tragedy and comedy of the condition of the English people, spoke through him as the god spoke through a teraph-head or brazen mask of oracle.
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Herbert states that Attila is represented on an old medallion with a teraph, or a head, on his breast; and the same writer adds: "We know, from the _Hamartigenea_ of Prudentius, that Nimrod, with a snaky-haired head, was the object of adoration of the heretical followers of Marcion; and the same head was the palladium set up by Antiochus Epiphanes over the gates of Antioch, though it has been called the visage of Charon.
The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 04 Rossiter Johnson 1885
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