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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Heathen \Hea"then\ (h[=e]"[th]'n; 277), noun; pl. {Heathens} (-[th]'nz) or collectively {Heathen}. [OE. hethen, AS. h[=ae][eth]en, prop. an adjective fr. h[=ae][eth] heath, and orig., therefore, one who lives in the country or on the heaths and in the woods (cf. pagan, fr. pagus village); akin to OS. h[=e][eth]in, adjective, D. heiden a heathen, G. heide, OHG. heidan, Icel. hei[eth]inn, adjective, Sw. heden, Goth. hai[thorn]n[=o], noun fem. See {Heath}, and cf. {Hoiden}.]
1. An individual of the pagan or unbelieving nations, or those which worship idols and do not acknowledge the true God; a pagan; an idolater.
2. An irreligious person.
If it is no more than a moral discourse, he may preach it and they may hear it, and yet both continue unconverted heathens. --V. Knox.
{The heathen}, as the term is used in the Scriptures, all people except the Jews; now used of all people except Christians, Jews, and Mohammedans.
Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance. --Ps. ii. 8.
Syn: Pagan; gentile. See {Pagan}.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Heathen \Hea"then\ (h[=e]"[th]'n), adjective
1. Gentile; pagan; as, a heathen author. ''The heathen philosopher.'' ''All in gold, like heathen gods.'' --Shak.
2. Barbarous; unenlightened; heathenish.
3. Irreligious; scoffing.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
heathen
adjective: not acknowledging the God of Christianity and Judaism and Islam [syn: {heathenish}, {pagan}, {ethnic}]
noun: a person who does not acknowledge your God [syn: {pagan}, {gentile}, {infidel}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
93 Moby Thesaurus words for "heathen": Gothic, Philistine, agnostic, allotheist, allotheistic, animist, animistic, atheist, atheistic, barbarian, barbaric, barbarous, bibliolatrous, bookless, chthonian, deceived, disbeliever, disbelieving, doubting, ethnic, faithless, fetishistic, functionally illiterate, gentile, godless, grammarless, heathenish, heretic, heretical, hoodwinked, idol worshiping, idolater, idolatress, idolatric, idolatrical, idolatrous, idolistic, ill-educated, illiterate, infidel, infidelic, irreligious, led astray, lowbrow, minimifidian, misinformed, misinstructed, mistaught, nonbeliever, nonintellectual, nullifidian, pagan, paganish, paganistic, pagano-Christian, pantheistic, polytheist, polytheistic, primitive, profane, rude, savage, sceptic, sceptical, secularist, unbeliever, unbelieving, unbooked, unbookish, unbooklearned, unbriefed, unchristian, uncivilized, uncultivated, uncultured, unedified, uneducated, unenlightened, unerudite, unguided, uninstructed, unintellectual, unlearned, unlettered, unliterary, unread, unrefined, unscholarly, unschooled, unstudious, untaught, untutored, zoolatrous
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
HEATHEN, noun A benighted creature who has the folly to worship something that he can see and feel. According to Professor Howison, of the California State University, Hebrews are heathens.
"The Hebrews are heathens!" says Howison. He's A Christian philosopher. I'm A scurril agnostical chap, if you please, Addicted too much to the crime Of religious discussion in my rhyme.
Though Hebrew and Howison cannot agree On a _modus vivendi_ -- not they! -- Yet Heaven has had the designing of me, And I haven't been reared in a way To joy in the thick of the fray.
For this of my creed is the soul and the gist, And the truth of it I aver: Who differs from me in his faith is an 'ist, And 'ite, an 'ie, or an 'er -- And I'm down upon him or her!
Let Howison urge with perfunctory chin Toleration -- that's all very well, But a roast is "nuts" to his nostril thin, And he's running -- I know by the smell -- A secret and personal Hell! Bissell Gip
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:
Heathen (Heb. plural goyum). At first the word _goyim_ denoted generally all the nations of the world (Gen. 18:18; comp. Gal. 3:8). The Jews afterwards became a people distinguished in a marked manner from the other _goyim_. They were a separate people (Lev. 20:23; 26:14-45; Deut. 28), and the other nations, the Amorites, Hittites, etc., were the _goyim_, the heathen, with whom the Jews were forbidden to be associated in any way (Josh. 23:7; 1 Kings 11:2). The practice of idolatry was the characteristic of these nations, and hence the word came to designate idolaters (Ps. 106:47; Jer. 46:28; Lam. 1:3; Isa. 36:18), the wicked (Ps. 9:5, 15, 17). The corresponding Greek word in the New Testament, _ethne_, has similar shades of meaning. In Acts 22:21, Gal. 3:14, it denotes the people of the earth generally; and in Matt. 6:7, an idolater. In modern usage the word denotes all nations that are strangers to revealed religion.
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