MYTHOCLAST noun (mith-uh-klast)

noun

1. a destroyer or debunker of myths.


Quotes

Tommy Moore, a life-long friend, an insatiable consumer of history, and a fellow mythoclast by constitution, accompanied me to the field on several occasions, and read sections of the working manuscript.
--*Scott Stine,*A Way Across the Mountain, 2015


... right now I reckon him a mythoclast, the sort of man you wouldn't trust with the Glastonbury Thorn, the Devil's Arrows at Boroughbridge, or Father Christmas.
--*John Hillaby,*"What's under York Minster?" New Scientist, March 29, 1973



Origin

English mythoclast comes from two familiar Greek words. The Greek noun mŷthos has many meanings: “speech, word, public speech, unspoken word, matter, fact,” as in mythology, “a set of stories, traditions, or beliefs.” The Greek combining form -klastēs “breaker” is most familiar in iconoclast “one who breaks images or statues” (literally and figuratively). A mythoclast is one who breaks or destroys a myth or myths in general. Mythoclast entered English in the late 19th century.