a person who follows a polytheistic or pre-Christian religion (not a Christian or Muslim or Jew)
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someone motivated by desires for sensual pleasures
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not acknowledging the God of Christianity and Judaism and Islam
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Pagan \Pa"gan\, a. [L. paganus of or pertaining to the country, pagan. See {Pagan}, n.] Of or pertaining to pagans; relating to the worship or the worshipers of false goods; heathen; idolatrous, as, pagan tribes or superstitions.
And all the rites of pagan honor paid. --Dryden.
Pagan \Pa"gan\ (p[=a]"gan), n. [L. paganus a countryman, peasant, villager, a pagan, fr. paganus of or pertaining to the country, rustic, also, pagan, fr. pagus a district, canton, the country, perh. orig., a district with fixed boundaries: cf. pangere to fasten. Cf. {Painim}, {Peasant}, and {Pact}, also {Heathen}.] One who worships false gods; an idolater; a heathen; one who is neither a Christian, a Mohammedan, nor a Jew.
Neither having the accent of Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man. --Shak.
Syn: Gentile; heathen; idolater.
Usage: {Pagan}, {Gentile}, {Heathen}. Gentile was applied to the other nations of the earth as distinguished from the Jews. Pagan was the name given to idolaters in the early Christian church, because the villagers, being most remote from the centers of instruction, remained for a long time unconverted. Heathen has the same origin. Pagan is now more properly applied to rude and uncivilized idolaters, while heathen embraces all who practice idolatry.
The first part of the exhibit concentrates on the powerful region of Prussia, named for an exterminated pagan tribe.
The State Department contends it is doing the best it can in dealing with an ineffectual and stubborn government and the complexities of a cruel civil war pitting the Moslem rulers in the north against the Christian and pagan minority in the south.
This is now discussed quite widely in Khartoum, where it is suggested that some members of the government might like to be rid of their Christian and pagan minority, but officials of the regime reject the idea.
When Richard Wagner put him on the operatic stage in 1845, Tannhauser was a noble knight with one girlfriend too many _ the pagan goddess of love.
"The pagan community," he says, "is slowly coming out." The new futures contracts also would require approval by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
It was in A.D. 988 that Prince Vladimir, newly converted to Christianity, got the pagan subjects of his principality then known as Kievan Rus to join in a mass baptism of thousands in the Dnieper river at Kiev.
"Las Vegas is probably no more notorious in its pagan qualities than any other city," Hastey said.
But witchcraft and other "pagan" religions began long before Christianity.
The psychological premise of these novels about city dwellers being stalked, possessed, even devoured by the pagan spirits of ancient forests is straightforward.