Other forms: heretics
A heretic is somebody whose beliefs go against the accepted teaching. Burned as a heretic, denounced as a heretic, a scientific heretic.
It is always said from inside the orthodoxy, and it was for centuries a capital charge. Used loosely of science or economics it is half a compliment: calling somebody a heretic in a field says they were right too early, or wrong loudly.
1nounhereticSomebody whose beliefs go against the accepted teaching.
“The Church declared him a heretic and burned his books.”
heretic is a person.
Greek hairetikos means able to choose, from hairesis, a choosing — the sense of choosing your own doctrine.
Ancient Greek
αἱρετικός — able to choose, factious
Ecclesiastical Latin
haereticus
Old French
eretique
Middle English
heretyk
English, today
heretic
From Middle English heretyk, heretike, from Old French eretique, from Medieval Latin - or Ecclesiastical Latin haereticus, from Ancient Greek αἱρετικός (“able to choose, factious”), itself from Ancient Greek αἱρέω (“to choose”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA