‖ thyrsus
(ˈθɜːsəs)
Pl. thyrsi (ˈθɜːsaɪ).
[L., a. Gr. θύρσος: see thyrse.]
1. Gr. and Rom. Antiq. A staff or spear tipped with an ornament like a pine-cone, and sometimes wreathed with ivy or vine branches; borne by Dionysus (Bacchus) and his votaries.
| 1591 L. Lloyd Tripl. Triumphes B iij b, Your Bacchus daunce is done,..Your sacred Thyrsus's wonne. a 1661 B. Holyday Juvenal (1673) 110/2 The Thyrsus was a dart or javelin wrapt-about with ivy. 1734 tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist. (1827) I. 41 [They] carried a thyrsus in their hands, a kind of pike with ivy leaves twisted round it. 1856 Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh ii. 52 Ivy..as good to grow on graves As twist about a thyrsus. |
2. Bot., etc. A form of inflorescence: † (a) a lax spike, as in some orchids (obs.); (b) a contracted kind of panicle, esp. one in which the primary branching is centripetal (racemose) and the secondary centrifugal (cymose), as in lilac and horse-chestnut.
| 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, Thyrsus, is a Word used by the Botanists, for the upright, and tapering Stalk: And 'tis often used for Spica, which is an Ear, or Blade of Corn. 1744 [see thyrse 2]. 1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. iii. iv. (1765) 173 (tr. Linnæus) A Thyrsus, is a Panicle contracted into an ovate Form. 1861 Bentley Man. Bot. (1870) 195 The Thyrsus or Thyrse is a kind of panicle in which the pedicels are generally very short. 1864 Lowell Fireside Trav. 108 Hop⁓vines..hung their clustering thyrsi over the open windows. |
3. Comb., as thyrsus-bearer, thyrsus-staff.
| 1844 L. Schmitz in Smith's Dict. Grk. & Rom. Biog. I. 1048/2 Bacchantic women,..carrying in their hands thyrsus-staffs. 1853 Trench Proverbs vi. 134 The thyrsus-bearers are many, but the bacchants few. |