orgiast

From Ancient Greek ὀργιαστής (orgiastḗs, “attender or celebrator of an orgy”), from Ancient Greek ὀργιάζειν (orgiázein, “to celebrate orgies”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔː(ɹ)d͡ʒiˌæst/

• Audio (Southern England)

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orgiast (plural orgiasts)

1. One who attends an orgy.

   Synonym: orgy-goer

   • 1895, Joseph Fitzgerald, transl., Mysteria: History of the Secret Doctrines and Mystic Rites of Ancient Religions and Medieval and Modern Secret Orders, Stockham, translation of original by Otto Henne am Rhyn, page 67:

     The cult of Cybele, which for the first time formally organized as a mystic society in Rome, but the orgiast frenzy clung to it at all times.

   • 1967 October 6, Gerald Weales, “Intimate History of a Royal Miscalculation”, in Life, volume 63, number 14, page 10:

     Rasputin became instrumental in the naming of ministers, men whose qualifications were that they were not going to interfere with the cushy double life he led — as sainted adviser to the royal family and as accomplished orgiast.

   • 1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, New York: Vintage, →ISBN, →OL:

     The Sadean orgiast is intellectual and contortionist, a Laocoön entwined by his proliferating desires.

2. (idiomatic) One who is prone to excessive indulgence.

• orgiastic

• orgy

• Rastogi, agistor, agorist