thyrsus

From Latin thyrsus, from Ancient Greek θύρσος (thúrsos). Doublet of thyrse and torso.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈθɜːsəs/

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈθɚsəs/
• Rhymes: -ɜːsəs, -ə(ɹ)səs

thyrsus (plural thyrsi)

1. A staff topped with a conical ornament, carried by Bacchus or his followers.
   • 1882, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Poet's Calendar

     In my hand I bear / The thyrsus, tipped with fragrant cones of pine.

   • 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Second Book”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC:

     As good to grow on graves / As twist about a thyrsus.

   • 1968, Anthony Burgess, Enderby Outside:

     The champagne was done, and she upturned the bottle to hold it like a thyrsus.

2. (botany) A species of inflorescence; a dense panicle, as in the lilac and horse-chestnut.

• thrussy

Borrowed from Ancient Greek θύρσος (thúrsos, “plant-stalk, Bacchic staff”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈtʰyr.sus/, [ˈt̪ʰʏrs̠ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈtir.sus/, [ˈt̪irsus]

thyrsus m (genitive thyrsī); second declension

1. thyrsus

Second-declension noun.

• >? Catalan: tros, troç
• → English: thyrse (also via French), thyrsus
• → French: thyrse
• Italian: torso (“torso”), tirso
  • → English: torso
    • → Welsh: torso
  • → French: torse
  • → Portuguese: torso, tirso
  • → Spanish: torso, tirso
• >? Occitan: tros
  • Portuguese: troço
• >? Spanish: trozo

• “thyrsus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “thyrsus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• thyrsus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• thyrsus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “thyrsus”, in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia‎
• “thyrsus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “thyrsus”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
• “thyrsus”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
• “thyrsus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin