noun
pariah
puh-RY-uh/pəˈraɪə/
A person rejected or despised by a group or society.
The attendees treat him as a pariah by turning away from his greeting.
Etymology
The “drummer” name referred to a southern Indian caste with hereditary festival duties. Its association with caste-based exclusion led to the broader sense of a social outcast.
In context
scaled the walls of her children's homes and terrorized their families and children and but moreover they vilified this respectable family in the media and made them really our community's pariah
More examples
- She refuses to treat the unpopular student as a pariah.
- The group turns dissenters into social pariahs.
- He returns from exile still regarded as a pariah.
Forms
pariah · pariahs