dithyramb

English

Etymology

From Latin dithyrambus, from Ancient Greek διθύραμβος (dithúrambos). According to the American Heritage Dictionary, it is of non-Indo-European origin (Pre-Greek substrate), related to θρίαμβος and ἴαμβος.[1] Brandenstein also compares Sanskrit अङ्ग (aṅga, “member”).[2]

Noun

dithyramb (plural dithyrambs)

  1. A choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus.
  2. A poem or oration in the same style.
    • 1969, Robert Conquest, “George Orwell”, in Arias from a Love Opera, and Other Poems, Macmillan, page 32,
      While those who drown a truth’s empiric part
      In dithyramb or dogma turn frenetic;
      — Than whom no writer could be less poetic
      He left this lesson for all verse, all art.

Translations

References
  1. “dithyramb” in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
  2. Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill
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