Impious (not pious : lacking in reverence or proper respect (as for God or one's parents) : irreverent
To wit:
- and that he impiously sets forth this error of his in detail, holding that the Deity is unknowable and incomprehensible.
- he certainly did not do it on account of his entertaining the impious notion of that man,
- Those who share in this heresy do not allow images, as the impious Severus did not
- Then returning he came to Jericho, where, being seized with melancholy, he planned to commit an impious deed, as if challenging death itself.
- The king did not rebuke them, nor did he reject their impious flattery
- we practiced unlawful commerce with mothers and sisters, and enjoyed impious feasts.
- and thus through their lawless and impious teaching under pretense of grace, have sunk to the lowest depths of perdition
Apparently, there was a lot of impious behavior in Eusebius' time. 115 times the word is mentioned in his 1000 page tome. And yet no matter how much calumnious behavior E was describing, the pronunciation of the word takes away from the meaning of the word. When I hear impious pronounced correctly IMP-eous it carries with it not heretical or damnable behavior - it implies (!) mischievous behavior - the behavior of an imp (but not the Game of Thrones' Imp, (below) who is a leader in impious behavior.) I hear "naughty" when it is pronounced this way, like Jon Lovitz' "Tales of Ribaldry."
The secondary pronunciation - a lot less fun to say - actually conveys the meaning of the word: im-PIE-us, emphasizing the very opposite of piety.
Pronunciation belies the meaning. Would you rather have a word that's fun to say but changes the meaning, or mispronounce and be understood perfectly?
Peter Dinklage, the impious Imp.
