gehenna
/ɡəˈhɛ.nə/ proper noun
Forms gehennas
- proper noun In rabbinical literature and Christian and Islamic scripture, the place where the souls of the wicked go after death, where they suffer eternal damnation or annihilation.
- proper noun Hell.
- proper noun A place of suffering and misery. “School was Gehenna for the restless student.”
- proper noun The valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem.
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Antonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin gehenna, from Ancient Greek γέεννα (géenna), from Hebrew גֵּיהִנּוֹם (ge'henom, “hell”, literally “valley of Hinnom”), named after the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem, which was constantly filled with the waste of the city, which was then burnt. Heinous deeds are also associated with this valley, as during the time when Jerusalem was ruled by non-Jews (referred to in scriptures simply as 'pagans') child sacrifice was practiced there.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The valley of Hinnom, near Jerusalem, where some of the Israelites sacrificed their children to Moloch, which, on this account, was afterward regarded as a place of abomination, and made a receptacle for all the refuse of the city, perpetual fires being kept up in order to prevent pestilential effluvia. In the New Testament the name is transferred, by an easy metaphor, to Hell.
Etymology [L. Gehenna, Gr. G.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “gehenna”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details