thyrsus
Americannoun
plural
thyrsi-
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
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.
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
Thyr′soid, -al, having the form of a thyrsus.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various
A plant extends along part of another compartment, possibly allusive to their medical virtues; and, to show that Bacchus was not forgotten, beneath lies a thyrsus with a double head.
From Old and New London Volume I by Thornbury, Walter
She waved a thyrsus, and pressed the grapes to her mouth....
From Psyche by Couperus, Louis
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)
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.
