Great Satan
5
9.9
- noun
- Slur
:
Gran Satán
- In political discussions, some leaders label the West as the Great Satan to criticize their influence in the region.
- the Great Satan
Of course, it calls the United States the Great Satan and Israel the small Satan.
- Of course, it calls the United States the Great Satan and Israel the small Satan.
- And they think that we are the great Satan, just like we think that they are the great Satan.
Examples
-
The U.S. is often seen by terrorists as the Great Satan.
Blog text (3) -
There will be no help from the Great Satan.
Blog text (30) -
Of course, it calls the United States the Great Satan and Israel the small Satan.
-
The Iranian state is capable of realism and compromise, but the revolution views the United States as "the Great Satan."
Academic text (2009) -
Even in 1996, Iranian politicians, without acknowledging a trace of hyperbole, described America as the "Great Satan."
Academic text (1996) -
In particular, Ahmadinejad and his allies see the United States as "the Great Satan," a source of cultural contamination and a rapacious capitalist power that exploits indigenous resources.
Academic text (2007) -
Many citizens in Iran publicly refer to America as the Great Satan due to its foreign policies.
-
During the protest, the crowd chanted slogans declaring the United States the Great Satan for its actions abroad.
Synonyms
A person or group unfairly blamed for social problems and seen as dangerous
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun phrase is compositionally interpretable: 'great' (very large/important) + 'Satan' (embodiment of evil) yields the sense of a major/ultimate evil or enemy, so learners who know the parts can infer it is a derogatory label. However, its specific political/pragmatic use as an epithet for a particular country or organisation is culturally conditioned and metaphorical, so the full referential/pragmatic meaning is not fully predictable from the constituents alone.
Etymology
Great Satan was first used by Iranian leaders to call the United States the main evil enemy. The image is simple: Satan is the biggest symbol of evil and Great makes him the main one, so people use the phrase to mean a country or group seen as the 'principal enemy' or 'evil force'.