bacchante

American  

[buh-kan-tee, -kahn-, buh-kant, -kahnt] / bəˈkæn ti, -ˈkɑn-, bəˈkænt, -ˈkɑnt /

noun

1. a female bacchant.

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bacchante British  

/ bəˈkæntɪ /

noun

1. a priestess or female votary of Bacchus

2. a drunken female reveller

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Etymology

Origin of bacchante

1790–1800; back formation from Latin bacchantēs, feminine plural of bacchāns bacchant; pronunciation with silent -e < French bacchante, feminine of bacchant bacchant

Example Sentences

"Like a bacchante after libations," she would stumble along, "nose and . . . forehead covered with yellow pollen, her hair in disorder and full of twigs, a bump here and a scratch there."

From Time Magazine Archive

In Paris she became a pupil, later a good friend of aging Auguste Rodin, won her first real fame with a bronze of Anna Pavlova as a dancing bacchante.

From Time Magazine Archive

"The computer has enshrined statistics," says M.I.T.'s Professor Harold A. "This is not a love-in," squawked a pimply bacchante, "it's a cash-in."

From Time Magazine Archive

“Gladly, most noble sir,” answered the boy, throwing down the goose and springing out of the way of the big bacchante, who sought to detain him.

From Count Ulrich of Lindburg A Tale of the Reformation in Germany by Kingston, William Henry Giles

Miss Brannan, in a dashing red cap and jacket, danced like a bacchante on the roof, albeit manipulating large buckets of water.

From The Californians by Atherton, Gertrude Franklin Horn