original sin
English
Etymology
Calque of Latin peccātum orīgināle, a phrase used by 4th-century Berber theologian and saint Augustine of Hippo in his interpretations of the Bible.
Pronunciation
Audio (US): (file)
Noun
original sin (countable and uncountable, plural original sins)
- (Christianity) Adam's disobedience to God.
- (Christianity) The state of sinfulness, present in each human from birth, which is a result of Adam's disobedience.
- 2017 February 23, Katie Rife, “The Girl With All The Gifts tries to put a fresh spin on overripe zombie clichés”, in The Onion AV Club[1]:
- You have to give director Colm McCarthy, a Scottish TV veteran making his feature film debut, and writer Mike Carey, adapting his own novel, credit for attempting the seemingly impossible task of doing something new with the zombie subgenre. And by blending it with the common YA trope of a young female protagonist who leads the world into a new revolutionary era, they almost get there—largely thanks to newcomer Nanua, who presents her character’s grappling with complex themes of identity and original sin with a childlike guilelessness.
- (figurative) The misdeed partially or entirely responsible for all of the similar ones after it.
- 1970, Morris Kominsky, chapter II, in The Hoaxers: Plain Liars, Fancy Liars, and Damned Liars[2], volume I, Boston: Branden Press, Inc., 8283-1288-5, page 191:
- The dim-wits hardly realize that they come pretty close to accusing God of advocating ritual murder, when they use the Biblical story to prove the “original sin” of the Jews.
Translations
Adam's disobedience
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state of sinfulness in each human
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