Once he began to savour the taste of true wealth, he abandoned all his erstwhile ideas regarding social welfare and was subsequently labelled an apostate.

Correct — C, (c) a renouncer of held beliefs.

An apostate is a person who abandons a belief, a faith or a set of principles that he formerly held. The word comes through Latin from Greek apostates, one who stands away or deserts his post - apo (away from) and histanai (to stand). It began in religious use, for a person who renounced his faith, and English has long extended it to political and ideological desertion: a party loyalist who repudiates the cause is called an apostate in exactly the same sense.

What makes this item unusually fair is that the sentence defines the word before using it. 'Once he began to savour the taste of true wealth, he abandoned all his erstwhile ideas regarding social welfare and was subsequently labelled an apostate.' The main clause states the fact - he abandoned his former ideas - and the underlined phrase is the label attached to a man who does that. 'Erstwhile' means former, so the sentence explicitly describes beliefs once held and then given up, which is the definition of apostasy set out in the sentence's own words. Option (c) restates it: a renouncer of held beliefs.

Note also what the sentence does not say. It gives no evidence about the man's manner - whether he became proud, or self-important - and while it certainly says he became wealthy, wealth is the cause of the change, not the label. The label is applied 'subsequently', after the abandonment, and it names the abandonment.

A note on the printed stem: the underline runs under 'an apostate', two words including the article, and stops before the full stop.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)an arrogant and haughty person — 'An arrogant and haughty person' describes a manner - overbearing pride in dealing with others - and the sentence contains no evidence about how the man treated anyone. The option draws on a general association between newly acquired wealth and arrogance, which is a familiar idea but not a fact in this sentence, and certainly not the meaning of the underlined word. Apostasy is about what a person has ceased to believe, not about how he carries himself; a humble, apologetic apostate is perfectly conceivable, and so is an arrogant man who has never changed a belief in his life.
• (b)a self-important person — 'A self-important person' is a weaker version of the same wrong idea, and it belongs to a different vocabulary family altogether - pompous, conceited, vainglorious. The sentence's only reference to the man's inner life is to his ideas about social welfare and his taste for wealth, neither of which is self-importance. This option is also the least discriminating of the four, since it could be attached to almost any unflattering description of a person; options of that kind are usually filler in an EPFO option list, and can be set aside quickly.
• (d)an affluent person — This is the deliberate trap, and it is built from the sentence rather than from the word. 'Affluent' means wealthy, and the sentence opens with the man beginning 'to savour the taste of true wealth', so a candidate who reads for a plausible connection instead of for the underlined word will find the link and take it. The reasoning fails on the structure of the sentence: wealth is given as the cause of the change of view, and the label is applied 'subsequently' to what he did with his views. A man does not become an apostate by growing rich; he becomes one by renouncing what he formerly believed - which is what the clause between the wealth and the label describes.

Apostate belongs to a cluster of nouns for people who break with a group or a belief, and the distinctions among them are precise enough to be tested.

Apostate - abandons a faith or set of principles he once held. Renegade - deserts a cause or party, often to join the other side; the word carries treachery. Heretic - holds opinions at variance with orthodox doctrine while remaining inside the tradition. Dissenter or dissident - openly disagrees with an established authority. Turncoat - changes allegiance opportunistically. Convert or proselyte - the mirror image, one who adopts a new faith.

The heretic and the apostate are the pair most often confused. A heretic contradicts the doctrine but remains within the fold; an apostate leaves it altogether. That distinction is worth carrying, because examiners set both.

The wider technique this item teaches is contextual definition. Vocabulary items are often written so that the sentence supplies the sense in other words - here 'abandoned all his erstwhile ideas' is a plain-English gloss on 'apostate', placed one clause away from the underlined phrase. The habit of asking what the rest of the sentence asserts about the person or thing being labelled will answer a large share of these items without any knowledge of the word, and will also expose the distractor built from an incidental detail, which is what option (d) is here.

Key facts

• An apostate is one who abandons a faith, principle or set of beliefs formerly held; the term began in religion and extends naturally to political and ideological desertion.
• The word derives from Greek apostates, one who stands away or deserts - apo (away from) and histanai (to stand) - reaching English through Latin.
• 'Erstwhile' in the stem means former, so the sentence itself states that the beliefs were once held and then given up, which is a plain-English definition of apostasy placed beside the tested word.
• An apostate leaves the fold altogether, while a heretic holds unorthodox opinions from within it - the distinction most often blurred and most often tested.
• The underline in the printed stem runs under 'an apostate', two words including the article, and stops before the full stop, although the Directions block promises a single underlined word.

Common traps

• Choosing 'an affluent person' because the sentence begins with wealth; the wealth is the cause of the change, not the meaning of the label.
• Reading the label as a comment on the man's manner - arrogant, self-important - when the sentence says nothing about how he behaved towards others.
• Confusing apostate with heretic: one leaves the belief system, the other disputes doctrine from inside it.
• Assuming only one word is underlined because the Directions say so; here the article is included in the underline.
• Skipping the clause between the wealth and the label, which is where the sentence defines the word.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Having spent thirty years in the party, he resigned, denounced its programme and joined its rivals; the newspapers called him a ______.

  • (a)heretic
  • (b)renegade
  • (c)proselyte
  • (d)dissenter

  Answer(b) renegade - the word names one who deserts a cause, and it is the term for a man who leaves and joins the other side. A heretic disputes doctrine from within, a proselyte is a new convert to a faith, and a dissenter disagrees openly while remaining where he is.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  'She was branded an apostate for repudiating the doctrines she had taught for a decade.' The word 'apostate' means one who :

  • (a)teaches doctrine to others
  • (b)has abandoned beliefs formerly held
  • (c)has grown wealthy through office
  • (d)behaves in an overbearing manner

  Answer(b) has abandoned beliefs formerly held - the sentence supplies the definition in the participial clause, 'repudiating the doctrines she had taught'. The other options describe an occupation, a circumstance and a manner, none of which the word names.