Orphic

[awr-fik]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR Orphic ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

of or relating to Orpheus.

resembling the music attributed to Orpheus; entrancing.

pertaining to a religious or philosophical school maintaining a form of the cult of Dionysus, or Bacchus, ascribed to Orpheus as founder: Orphic mysteries.

(often lowercase) mystic; oracular.

RELATED WORDS

Origin of Orphic

1670–80; < Greek Orphikós (cognate with Latin Orphicus), equivalent to Orph(eús) Orpheus + -ikos -ic

Related formsOr·phi·cal·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for orphic

The Orphic, chiefly deserving mention as the probable foundation of the Eleusinian.
Mysticism and its Results|John Delafield
Strabo's—or rather Artemidorus'—parallel is the same as that of the Orphic poem, and, probably, is referrible to the same source.
The Ethnology of the British Islands|Robert Gordon Latham
The former, which is St. Jude's word, almost invariably means "rocks," but in an Orphic poem of the fourth century means "spots."
The Expositor's Bible:|Alfred Plummer
The Orphic Sect believed that "release" from the wheel of life was to be obtained by religious ceremonial and ritual.
A Critical History of Greek Philosophy|W. T. Stace

These are the oracles and orphic words that get lodged in the mind and bend a man's most stubborn will.
Emerson and Other Essays|John Jay Chapman

British Dictionary definitions for orphic

Orphic

adjective

of or relating to Orpheus or Orphism

(sometimes not capital) mystical or occult

Derived FormsOrphically, adverb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for orphic

Orphic

adj.

1670s, from Greek orphikos "pertaining to Orpheus," master musician of Thrace, son of Eagrus and Calliope, husband of Eurydice, whose name (of unknown origin) was associated with mystic doctrines. Related: Orphism.