Relating to or causing overturning, reversal, or the rejection of established beliefs or doctrines; subversive or revolutionary in nature.
From Greek 'ana-' (back, against) + 'treptos' (turned), literally meaning 'turned back.' Related to the verb 'anatrepein' (to overturn).
Anatreptic ideas are the intellectual equivalents of earthquakes—they shake the very foundations of what people believe. Copernicus's heliocentric model was anatreptic to medieval theology, as it literally turned the cosmic order inside out!
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