iconic!

...so one of the things dad always does is give me books that i don't wind up reading...math and science books that are WAY over my head, sci-fi books that are reeeeeeeeeeealy dull  ("fantastic logic,") books of pedantic puzzles that require a knowledge of british coinage and cricket rules, children's books that are totally contrary to aashna's taste ("the berenstain bears eat too much junk food.")
   ...BUT the last book he gave me was "dictionary of word origins," with that "return to  AM Soosaipillai" stamp on every side.  and DAMN, it's fascinating!!!  here goes:
  the words "icon" and "iconoclast."  from context (thelonious monk, for example, is often referred to as "iconoclastic"), i always thought "iconoclast" meant something like "kinda weird" which it can, but the two words, are, in fact, related!
    icon comes from greek eikon meaning "be like," thus likeness or  similarity.
    iconoclast adds the verb klan, "to break," thus "breaker of icons."  from the book:
The original iconoclasts were members of the Eastern Orthodox church in the 8th and 9th centuries who were oppoesed to the use or worship of religious images.  In more extreme cases their opposition took the form of smashimg icons...The term subsequently came to be applied to extreme Protestants in England in the 16th ad 17th centuries who expressed their disapproval of graven images (and popish practices in general) in similar ways.  Its general use of "attacker of orthodoxy" dates from the early 19th century.
  The later iconoclasts will be familiar to readers of "Neal Stephenson's" Baroque Trilogy.  We would call them "Puritans," but another term was "Nonconformists," another word which had a meaning of a specific religious group which, like "iconoclast," is now a general term.