satanicadj.
/səˈtanɪk/, U.S. /səˈtænɪk/, /seɪˈtænɪk/ 1.
a. Frequently with capital initial. Of or relating to Satan; that is the Devil or a devil.His Satanic Majesty: see majesty n. 2.
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the world > the supernatural > deity > a devil > the Devil or Satan > [adjective]
venomous1340
satanical1534
serpentinec1540
satanic1544
cloven-footed1622
Satanite1769
1544 G. Joye Present Consol. Sufferers Persecucion sig. C.vi.v We haue thorowe our lordis grace and helpe forsaken his Satanike fraternite and synagoge.
1641 R. Baillie Unlawfulnesse & Danger of Limited Episcopacie 5 You make..his arguments not onely to bee false, but Satanick illusions.
1657 N. Billingsley Brachy-martyrologia xxxi. 129 Away, away, Satanick Imps.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost vi. 392 The faint Satanic Host. View more context for this quotation
1704 W. Coward Grand Ess. 104 He has undoubtedly permission upon special Cases to communicate his Satanic Power to Human Nature.
1720 Independent Whig No. 11 It should be doing too much Credit to his Satanick Majesty, to suppose him more than a Match for a Million of consecrated Persons, with all their Heiriarchical [sic] Powers..about them.
1788 N. Tucker tr. E. Swedenborg Wisdom of Angels iii. 243 The Satanic Hell corresponds in opposition to the spiritual Kingdom.
1839 E. W. Lane tr. Thousand & One Nights I. 66 Satanic magic, as its name implies, is a science depending on the agency of the Devil and the inferior evil Jinn.
1881 J. Grant Cameronians I. ii. 23 Two large yellow rings..drawn by the sword of an evil Montgomerie, who had trafficked in Satanic influence.
1922 T. Osborn Lion & Lamb i. 45 Job's time of freedom from Satanic power was the long time at the beginning and the long time at the close of his career.
1952 PMLA 67 799 The Satanic deities of his [sc. Milton's] Nativity Ode.
1985 R. Curtis & B. Elton Blackadder II in R. Curtis et al. Blackadder: Whole Damn Dynasty (1998) 180/1 The path of my life is strewn with cowpats from the devil's own satanic herd.
2002 N. Drury Dict. Esoteric 157/1 Among occultists, the symptoms of insanity sometimes manifest as demonic or satanic possession.
b. spec. Engaged in or associated with the worship of Satan.See also satanic abuse n. at Compounds.
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1868 Fraser's Mag. Jan. 76/2 Though they gracefully said the satanic liturgy, they did not like it.
1896 Denver Evening Post 31 Oct. 3/4 Certain English papers which trace the origin of the new Satanic cult to Charleston, S. C., have been duped by the French authors, who invented the stories.
1908 Truth 22 July 225/2 The Satanic Mass to which Mme. de Montespan resorted to secure Louis' illicit love.
1967 Alabama Courier 15 June 5/6 There are actually satanic cults, in this country, that are obsessed with sex in rites and ceremonies, worshipping Satan.
2017 Austin Amer.-Statesman (Texas) (Nexis) 20 June a1 Allegations that they performed satanic rituals on the children.
2.
a. Characteristic of, befitting, or reminiscent of Satan in nature or behaviour; diabolical, devilish, fiendish; wicked, evil, cruel.
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the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > diabolicalness > [adjective]
devillyOE
fiendenc1315
serpentinec1422
devilish?a1439
diabolic?1483
feding1502
diabolical1546
satanic1556
demoniacal1565
serpent-likea1586
serpentive1635
devilized1641
fiendlike1716
diabolish1865
society > morality > moral evil > wickedness > [adjective] > devilishly wicked
devillyOE
fiendenc1315
serpentinec1422
devilish?a1439
diabolic?1483
diabolical1546
satanical1548
satanic1556
serpent-likea1586
fiendlikea1616
serpentive1635
devilized1641
demoniacal1714
demoniac1784
diabolish1865
the world > the supernatural > deity > a devil > the Devil or Satan > [adjective] > characteristic of
satanical1548
satanic1556
1556 tr. A. Mainardi Anatomi iv. f. 136v This maner of persecuting Christ, is all wholly wicked, and Satanike [It. sathanico].
1659 J. Gauden Ἱερα Δακρυα iv. xv. 495 These methods of Church-Councils and Assemblies..are so Mechanick, so Tyrannick, so Satanick, that nothing is more mischievous to the Church of Christ and true Religion.
1674 Satyr against Coffee (single sheet) Avoid, Satanick Tipple! hence Thou Murtherer of Farthings, and of Pence; And Midwife to all false Intelligence!
1723 C. Mather Let. 21 May in J. Jurin Corr. (1996) 152 The manner, wherein the Opposition has been usually carried on, has been so Satanic.
1793 T. Holcroft tr. J. C. Lavater Ess. Physiognomy (abridged ed.) xxix. 142 A criminal..who with satanic wickedness had murdered his benefactor.
1804 Ann. Rev. 2 196/2 The satanic art of destroying the fetus in the womb.
1817 S. T. Coleridge Biogr. Lit. II. xxiii. 281 Count Bertram..avows with open atrocity, his satanic hatred of Imogine's Lord.
1878 E. Jenkins Haverholme 79 With an ingenuity almost satanic.
1913 19th Cent. July 91 This was told to me by the very men who took part in the satanic act.
1988 E. Segal Doctors xiii. 188 Linc could not fathom how the nation that had produced such angelic music could also have committed such satanic atrocities.
2000 J. Raimondo Enemy of State vii. 365 A monstrous system of almost satanic evil.
b. Characteristic or reminiscent of Satan in appearance or sound (according to conventional representations). Cf. diabolical adj. 2b.
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the world > the supernatural > deity > a devil > the Devil or Satan > [adjective] > resembling or diabolic
devilish?1473
diabolicc1475
devil-like1488
diabolical1502
satanical1548
devilified1647
satanic1791
Beelzebubian1867
1791 J. Ireland Hogarth Illustr. I. 100 He was farther remarkable for a diabolical squint, and a Satanic smile.
1833 Satirist 12 May 22/2 The Baron..tugged at his hair, and ran about the room with a most Satanic grin.
1884 J. Leech Brief Romances Bristol Hist. 70 Dalby followed his retiring steps with a satanic glance of triumph, and at length burst out into a loud discordant laugh.
1901 C. R. Corson tr. P. M. Janet Mental State Hystericals ii. v. 481 One morning, without any known cause, he broke out into a satanic laughter which terrified all bystanders.
1989 R. Frame Penelope's Hat iii. i. 47 Her father was a bishop, but she often showed something almost satanic in her expressions.
2014 Globe & Mail (Toronto) (Nexis) 8 Mar. (Travel section) 2 He shoots me a satanic grin, hits the accelerator and off we go.
3. With capital initial. Designating a group of writers originally and chiefly taken to include Byron, Shelley, and their imitators, whose work is characterized by disregard for conventional religious belief and delight in the portrayal of unconstrained passion; more fully Satanic school. Also: of or relating to this group. Now historical.
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society > leisure > the arts > literature > poetry > poet > school of poets or poetic movement > [noun]
Lake poets1816
Lake school1816
Satanic school1821
Spasmodic School1832
imagism1912
Acmeism1913
Adamism1913
unanimism1931
ultraism1932
the Movement1954
Simultaneism1959
spatialism1964
1821 R. Southey Vision of Judgem. Pref. p. xxi Men of diseased hearts and depraved imaginations..hating that revealed religion which..they are unable entirely to disbelieve... The school which they have set up may properly be called the Satanic school; for..their productions..are more especially characterized by a Satanic spirit of pride and audacious impiety.
1834 T. Carlyle Sartor Resartus ii. vi. 54/1 Teufelsdröckh..had only one of three things which he can next do: Establish himself in Bedlam; begin writing Satanic Poetry; or blow out his brains.
1843 T. Carlyle Past & Present ii. xvii. 179 Satanic-School, Cockney-School and other Literatures.
1947 Sci. & Society 11 234 The attitudes of both the kept press toward the unkept, and of the Lake poets toward the Satanic poets.
2001 Yearbk. Eng. Stud. 31 263 Marsh has important things to say about British literary culture from the 1790s to the 1820s, but she is not enthralled by either the Lake Poets or the Satanic School.
Compounds
satanic abuse n. sexual abuse (esp. of children), violence, or killing supposedly committed as part of satanic worship rituals; cf. ritual abuse n. at ritual adj. and n. Compounds 1.
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1987 Washington Post 22 Feb. (Mag.) 7/3 Oprah: Satanic Abuse.
1990 Social Work Today 10 May 5/2 Despite increasing evidence at child care conferences that satanic abuse existed, there was a lack of overall co-ordination.
2001 Hull Daily Mail (Nexis) 11 Aug. 13 The story unfolds as Banks and his team find links to two murders and consider satanic abuse as a motive for the abduction.
satanic mills n. chiefly British industrial mills or factories (esp. those of Britain in the 19th cent.) associated with harsh working conditions and regarded as representing inhuman or exploitative industrialization; more fully dark satanic mills.With allusion to Blake's use in quot. 1808.
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1808 W. Blake Milton Pref. 2 And was Jerusalem builded here, Among these dark Satanic Mills?
1913 Times of India 1 Apr. 9/5 His [sc. Joseph Pennell] etchings and lithographs have pictured the ‘dark Satanic mills’ of industrial England.
1962 Times 23 Feb. 14/3 They could see, by looking around, the Satanic mills rising in every direction.
2018 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 21 Apr. 18 Towns and cities are infinitely better to live in than they were a century ago... The dark Satanic Mills have gone.
satanic panic n. public anxiety or alarm in response to supposed widespread satanic worship or satanic abuse (satanic abuse n.), esp. that which emerged in North America during the 1980s and 1990s; (also) an instance of this.
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1988 Toronto Star 18 Jan. c1/4 Two little girls testified to being forced to take part in satanic and cannibalistic rites in a local graveyard... Now the Hamilton case is being used by child-care professionals to stir up what I can only call a satanic panic.
1991 Mother Jones July 30/2 The Ingram Case began at a time when satanic panic was rolling through the country in waves of rumor and media hype.
2016 A. Byers in A. Byers & F. Crocco Role-playing Society 25 Though it exploded into prominence in the early 1980s, the Satanic panic had been building slowly since the 1960s, with anxieties about the rise of the counterculture, increasing interest in the occult and ‘New Age’ beliefs.., and the growing number of new religious movements.
Satanic verses n. a short text reputed to have been included in the Qur'an at the suggestion of Satan rather than by divine inspiration when Muhammad was uttering authentic verses.The text consists of six Arabic words referring to the intercessionary powers of three pagan goddesses. Islamic scholarship has long regarded narratives of the inclusion as unsubstantiated. The term became widely known with the controversy surrounding Salman Rushdie's novel (see quot. 1988) and the subsequent fatwa calling for him to be killed, issued by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989.
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1858 W. Muir Life Mahomet II. v. 152 So the two Satanic verses were in the mouth of every one of the unbelievers, and they increased their malice.
1961 W. M. Watt Muhammad iii. 61 Whether we accept this story or not..it seems certain that Muhammad recited the ‘satanic verses’ as part of the Qur'an and later recited another revelation abrogating them.
1988 S. Rushdie Satanic Verses (1998) ii. 124 After the repudiation of the Satanic verses, the Prophet Mahound returns home to find a kind of punishment awaiting him.
1998 Studia Islamica 87 68 The long debate conducted by Muslim scholars over the Satanic verses incident..[has been] resolved today in the rejection of the historicity of the Satanic verses incident.
2009 Oxf. Encycl. Islamic World (electronic ed.) at Satanic Verses The story concerning the ‘Satanic Verses’ occurs in several early Muslim sources, including the Ṭabaqāt of Ibn Saʿd (784–845 ce) and the Tafsīr of al-Ṭabarī (839–923 ce).
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1544