thyrsus
Americannoun
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Botany. a thyrse.
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Greek Antiquity. a staff tipped with a pine cone and sometimes twined with ivy and vine branches, borne by Dionysus and his votaries.
noun
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Greek myth a staff, usually one tipped with a pine cone, borne by Dionysus (Bacchus) and his followers
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a variant spelling of thyrse
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of thyrsus
1585–95; < Latin < Greek thýrsos Bacchic staff, stem of plant
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In last year's district finals, Melody, a straight A student at Pittsburgh's Carrick Junior High, muffed thyrsus, placed second.
From Time Magazine Archive
He is surrounded by his usual rout of attendants, one of whom bears a thyrsus.
From Museum of Antiquity A Description of Ancient Life by Haines, T. L. (Thomas Louis)
The thyrsus, however, was a javelin twisted with ivy-leaves, used in the sacrifices of Bacchus.
From The Lusiad or The Discovery of India, an Epic Poem by Camões, Luís de
I am intent on the subtle movements of my rod, round which my thoughts and fancies wind and blossom till they have made a thyrsus of it.
From Hypolympia Or, The Gods in the Island, an Ironic Fantasy by Gosse, Edmund
She presses to her bosom the infant Iacchus, crowned with the eternal ivy, and bearing in his hand the thyrsus.
From Museum of Antiquity A Description of Ancient Life by Haines, T. L. (Thomas Louis)
Thus, above the great marble mantel,—carved with thyrsi, and supported by proud deep-bosomed caryatides,—you will find burly Sebastian Musgrave, "the Speaker," an all-overbearing man even on canvas.
From The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck A Comedy of Limitations by Cabell, James Branch
They were clothed in fawn-skins, crowned with ivy, and bore in their hands thyrsi, that is spears entwined with ivy, or having a pine-cone stuck on the point.
From The New Gresham Encyclopedia. Vol. 1 Part 3 Atrebates to Bedlis by Various
The upper part is painted with lines, between which are depicted griffins in repose, baskets with thyrsi, branches of herbs, and other objects.
From Museum of Antiquity A Description of Ancient Life by Haines, T. L. (Thomas Louis)
It traversed Thrace and Asia, reveling in company with four hundred male attendants, who were equipped with thyrsi and fawn-skins and did no harm.
From Dio's Rome, Volume 6 An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek During The Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus And Alexander Severus by Foster, Herbert Baldwin
A pink house with green shutters, half-hidden amid the sombre foliage, appears at the end of an alley of lilacs, "which sway in the spring under the weight of their balmy thyrsi."
From Fabre, Poet of Science by Miall, Bernard
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
