What does heathenized mean?
“Heathenized” is the past tense and past participle of “heathenize,” a verb meaning to make someone or something pagan or to convert it from Christianity or another monotheistic faith. In older religious, historical, and literary writing, the word may describe the conversion of a population, place, object, or custom to a non-Christian religion. Modern usage is uncommon, and the term carries the marked, often colonial or missionary associations of the language from which it derives. It can therefore sound deliberately archaic when used to characterize historical processes, while sometimes functioning as a more general synonym for “paganized.” The form is especially useful in discussing how political power, missionary activity, or cultural change transformed religious identity. Because “heathen” is now sometimes insulting when applied to people, careful writers normally specify the relevant religion or belief system rather than using “heathenized” as a broad label. In contemporary English, “paganized” or “converted” will often be clearer, depending on the intended emphasis.
verbThe past tense and past participle of heathenize, meaning to make someone or something pagan or to convert it from Christianity or another monotheistic religion.
- Converted or made pagan or non-Christian.
- Caused to be regarded as outside Christianity or as belonging to a non-Christian religious tradition.
"The missionaries sought to convert the population, but the traditional sacred sites were eventually heathenized."
"The settlement had been heathenized long before the missionaries arrived."
"The scholar explained how indigenous sacred places were gradually heathenized and repurposed."
A relic of religious history: heathenized means “made pagan,” but today the word itself sounds like a relic.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of heathenized
Heathenized is formed from heathen plus the suffix -ize, with the -ed participle ending. Heathen is an English word inherited from Old English hǣthen, originally denoting a person or people outside Christian belief. The form belongs to the modern English vocabulary of religious conversion and retains the older broad sense of “pagan” or “non-Christian.”
Related word forms
How heathenized is actually used
Rare, archaic, or historical. The term may carry the marked religious and colonial associations of older writing. Because “heathen” can be derogatory when applied to contemporary people, writers often name the relevant religion or belief system instead. The British spelling “heathenised” is also common.