thyrsus

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈθɜːsəs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈθɚsəs/

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.

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

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

thyrsus m (genitive thyrsī); second declension

1. thyrsus

Second declension.

• → French: thyrse
• Italian: torso, tirso
  • → French: torse

• 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)
• 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 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