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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

thyr·sus

Audio Help [thur-suh

s] Pronunciation Key

–noun, plural -si

Audio Help [-sahy] Pronunciation Key.

1.	Botany. a thyrse.

2.	Greek Antiquity. a staff tipped with a pine cone and sometimes twined with ivy and vine branches, borne by Dionysus and his votaries.

[Origin: 1585–95; < L < Gk thýrsos Bacchic staff, stem of plant

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Thyrsus

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

thyr·sus Audio Help (thûr'səs) Pronunciation Key
n. pl. thyr·si (-sī)

Mythology A staff tipped with a pine cone and twined with ivy, carried by Dionysus, Dionysian revelers, and satyrs.
Botany A thyrse.

[Latin, from Greek thursos.]

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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
thyrsus

1591, from Gk. thyrsos, lit. "stalk or stem of a plant," a non-Gk. word of unknown origin. The staff or spear tipped with an ornament like a pine cone, and sometimes wreathed in ivy or vine branches, borne by Dionysus and his votaries.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

thyrsus
noun
a dense flower cluster (as of the lilac or horse chestnut) in which the main axis is racemose and the branches are cymose [syn: thyrse]

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Thyrsus

Thyr"sus\, n.; pl. Thyrsi. [L., fr. Gr. ?. Cf. Torso.]

1. A staff entwined with ivy, and surmounted by a pine cone, or by a bunch of vine or ivy leaves with grapes or berries. It is an attribute of Bacchus, and of the satyrs and others engaging in Bacchic rites.

A good to grow on graves As twist about a thyrsus. --Mrs. Browning.

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

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

On-line Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

thyrsus

thyrsus: in CancerWEB's On-line Medical Dictionary

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