bacchanal

• Bacchanal

From Latin Bacchānālis (“of or pertaining to Bacchus”). See Bacchanalia.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbækənəl/

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bacchanal (comparative more bacchanal, superlative most bacchanal)

1. Relating to Bacchus or his festival.
   • 1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto I, (please specify the stanza number):

     Sweet is the vintage, when the showering grapes / In Bacchanal profusion reel to earth, / Purple and gushing […]

2. Engaged in drunken revels; drunken and riotous or noisy.

bacchanal (plural bacchanals)

1. A devotee of Bacchus.
2. Someone who indulges in drunken partying; someone noisy and riotous when intoxicated.
   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     The riot of the tipsie Bachanals

3. (in the plural) The festival of Bacchus; the bacchanalia.
4. Drunken revelry; an orgy.
5. A song or a dance in honor of Bacchus.
6. (Trinidad and Tobago, informal) drama, ruckus, fiasco

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bacchanal m (plural bacchanals)

1. a loud, annoying noise
2. a revolt amongst the peasantry

• “bacchanal”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.