- 1
An iconoclast is someone who attacks ideas and customs that a group treats as settled — the usual beliefs, the old rules, the ‘this is how we do it’ picture. The word began in a much more physical place. In the old Christian world, an iconoclast was a person who broke religious pictures (icons), because they thought those images were wrong to keep and honour. The Greek pieces mean ‘image’ and ‘breaker’. History books still use that first sense. In ordinary educated English now, though, we almost always mean the later, looser sense: a person who goes after established thinking, in art, , science, or even family life. It can sound a little — we often pin it on a brave, awkward — and it can also sound like a warning: this person likes knocking things down. It is a formal, essay-and-newspaper word, not a playground one. People sometimes stretch it to mean merely ‘different’ or ‘rebellious’; the tighter meaning is that the person is aimed at what is already set up, not only at being new.
反傳統者、破除成規的人（歷史義：聖像破壞者）
組成icono- (image) + -clast (breaker). Borrowed from French iconoclaste and Medieval Latin īconoclastēs, from Byzantine Greek eikonoklástēs, literally ‘image breaker’.
同家族的字
- iconshares icono-/icon, the ‘image’ piece (first a holy picture, later any symbol)
- iconoclasticthe adjective built from this noun
- iconographyshares icono-, the ‘image’ piece
原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
iconoclastnoun/aɪˈkɒn.əˌklæst/
- 1
historicalChristianityOne who destroys religious images or icons, especially an opponent of the Orthodox Church in the 8th and 9th centuries, or a Puritan during the European Reformation.
- In the days of the early Christian church, people who opposed the veneration (reverence) of images were called iconoclasts.
- 2
One who opposes orthodoxy and religion; one who adheres to the doctrine of iconoclasm.
- In February 1895 he [William Cowper Brann, 1855-1898 ] revived publication of the Iconoclast. This time it was successful and eventually attained a circulation of 100,000. Brann took obvious relish in directing his stinging attacks upon institutions and persons he considered to be hypocritical or overly sanctimonious.
- 3
One who attacks cherished beliefs; a maverick.
- After all, the fact that any discussion of the possibility is greeted with hysterical revulsion guarantees that only two types of people will take the "pro" side in public: fearless iconoclasts who do not care what anyone thinks of them; and racists.
- Coming so soon after the death of David Bowie, it’s a moment to consider how deeply important iconoclasts are to the evolution of a culture. Do they change the world by trying to change it, or do they change the world through the radical act of simply being themselves?
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。