English

Noun

thyrsus ‎(plural thyrsi)

1. A staff topped with a conical ornament, carried by Bacchus or his followers.
   • Longfellow

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

   • Elizabeth Barrett Browning

     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.

Translations

Latin

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈtʰyr.sus/, [ˈtʰʏr.sʊs]

Noun

thyrsus m ‎(genitive thyrsī); second declension

1. thyrsus

Inflection

Second declension.

Descendants

• Italian: torso, tirso

References

• 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, 1883–1887)
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “thyrsus”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: 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 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