Anacreontic

American  

[uh-nak-ree-on-tik] / əˌnæk riˈɒn tɪk /

adjective

1. of or in the manner of Anacreon.

2. convivial and amatory.

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noun

1. anacreontic, an Anacreontic poem.

Anacreontic British  

/ əˌnækrɪˈɒntɪk /

adjective

1. in the manner of the Greek lyric poet Anacreon (?572–?488 _bc ), noted for his short songs celebrating love and wine

2. (of verse) in praise of love or wine; amatory or convivial

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noun

1. an Anacreontic poem

Other Word Forms

• Anacreontically
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of Anacreontic

First recorded in 1650–60; from Latin Anacreōnticus, equivalent to Anacreōnt- (from Greek Anakreōnt-, stem of Anakréōn ) Anacreon + -icus adjective suffix; see -ic

Example Sentences

Around 1776, the English composer John Stafford Smith wrote the tune “To Anacreon in Heaven” for the Anacreontic Society, a British gentlemen’s club that gathered regularly for dinners and concerts.

From The New Yorker • Aug. 29, 2016

He wrote the poem “In Defense of Fort McHenry,” which was later set to the tune of a British song called “The Anacreontic Song” and eventually became the U.S. national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

From Textbooks • Dec. 30, 2014

The Anacreontic Song was well known in the early American republic — most famously as “Adams and Liberty,” an impassioned defense of the second president.

From New York Times • Jun. 27, 2014

It began as “the theme song, you might say . . . of something called the Anacreontic Society in London,” an elite men’s club for amateur musicians founded in about 1766, he said.

From Washington Post

Would it be going too far, then, to say that Pansy stands to us as the symbol of Pan-girlism - as an almost Anacreontic yearning for the type?

From The Love Sonnets of a Car Conductor by Irwin, Wallace