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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
or·gy    Audio Help   [awr-jee] Pronunciation Key
–noun, plural -gies.
1.wild, drunken or licentious festivity or revelry.
2.any actions or proceedings marked by unbridled indulgence of passions: an orgy of killing.
3.orgies, (in ancient Greece) esoteric religious rituals, esp. in the worship of Demeter or Dionysus, characterized in later times by wild dancing, singing, and drinking.
4.Informal. a boisterous, rowdy party.

[Origin: 1580–90; < MF orgie < L orgia (neut. pl.) secret rites < Gk órgia, akin to érgon work]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
orgy

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
or·gy    Audio Help   (ôr'jē)  Pronunciation Key 
n.   pl. or·gies
  1. A revel involving unrestrained indulgence, especially sexual activity.
  2. Uncontrolled or immoderate indulgence in an activity: an orgy of spending. See Synonyms at binge.
  3. A secret rite in the cults of ancient Greek or Roman deities, typically involving frenzied singing, dancing, drinking, and sexual activity.


[From orgies, secret rites, from Old French, from Latin orgia, from Greek; see werg- in Indo-European roots.]

Word History: The word orgy has become connected in the minds of many of us with unrestrained sexual activity, but its origins are much less licentious. We can trace the word as far back as the Indo-European root *werg-, meaning "to do," also the source of our word work. Greek orgia, "secret rites, worship," comes from *worg-, one form of this root. The Greek word was used with reference to the rites practiced in the worship of various deities, such as Orpheus and Dionysus. The word in Greek did not denote sexual activity, although this was a part of some rites. The rites of Dionysus, for example, included only music, dancing, drinking, and the eating of animal sacrifices. Having passed through Latin and Old French into English, the word orgy is first recorded in English with reference to the secret rites of the Greek and Roman religions in 1589. It is interesting to note that the word is first recorded with its modern sense in 18th-century English and perhaps in 17th-century French. Whether this speaks to a greater licentiousness in society or not must be left to the historian, but certainly the religious nature of the word has gone into eclipse.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
orgy 
1561, orgies (pl.) "secret rites in the worship of certain Gk. and Roman gods," especially Dionysus, from M.Fr. orgies (c.1500), from L. orgia, from Gk. orgia (pl.) "secret rites," from PIE base *werg- "to work" (see urge (v.)). The singular, orgy, was first used in Eng. 1665 for the extended sense of "any licentious revelry." OED says of the ancient rites that they were "celebrated with extravagant dancing, singing, drinking, etc.," which gives "etc." quite a workout.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
orgy

noun
1. any act of immoderate indulgence; "an orgy of shopping"; "an emotional binge"; "a splurge of spending" 
2. secret rite in the cults of ancient Greek or Roman deities involving singing and dancing and drinking and sexual activity 
3. a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
orgy [ˈoːdʒi] nounplural ˈorgies
a wild party or celebration
Example: a drunken orgy
Arabic: طَقْس أحْتِفالي ماجِن وصاخِب، عَرْبَدَه
Chinese (Simplified): 狂欢
Chinese (Traditional): 狂歡
Czech: orgie
Danish: orgie; -orgie
Dutch: orgie
Estonian: orgia
Finnish: orgiat
French: orgie
German: die Orgie
Greek: όργιο
Hungarian: orgia
Icelandic: svallveisla
Indonesian: pesta gila-gilaan
Italian: orgia
Japanese: お祭り騒ぎ
Latvian: orģija
Lithuanian: orgija
Norwegian: orgie
Polish: orgia
Portuguese (Brazil): orgia
Portuguese (Portugal): orgia
Romanian: orgie
Russian: оргия
Slovak: orgie
Slovenian: orgija
Spanish: orgía
Swedish: orgie
Turkish: çılgın parti
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary, © 2000-2006 K Dictionaries Ltd.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Orgy

Or"gan\, n. [L. organum, Gr. ?; akin to ? work, and E. work: cf. F. organe. See Work, and cf. Orgue, Orgy.]

1. An instrument or medium by which some important action is performed, or an important end accomplished; as, legislatures, courts, armies, taxgatherers, etc., are organs of government.

2. (Biol.) A natural part or structure in an animal or a plant, capable of performing some special action (termed its function), which is essential to the life or well-being of the whole; as, the heart, lungs, etc., are organs of animals; the root, stem, foliage, etc., are organs of plants.

Note: In animals the organs are generally made up of several tissues, one of which usually predominates, and determines the principal function of the organ. Groups of organs constitute a system. See System.

3. A component part performing an essential office in the working of any complex machine; as, the cylinder, valves, crank, etc., are organs of the steam engine.

4. A medium of communication between one person or body and another; as, the secretary of state is the organ of communication between the government and a foreign power; a newspaper is the organ of its editor, or of a party, sect, etc.

5. [Cf. AS. organ, fr. L. organum.] (Mus.) A wind instrument containing numerous pipes of various dimensions and kinds, which are filled with wind from a bellows, and played upon by means of keys similar to those of a piano, and sometimes by foot keys or pedals; -- formerly used in the plural, each pipe being considired an organ.

The deep, majestic, solemn organs blow. --Pope.

Note: Chaucer used the form orgon as a plural.

The merry orgon . . . that in the church goon [go].

Barrel organ, Choir organ, Great organ, etc. See under Barrel, Choir, etc.

Cabinet organ (Mus.), an organ of small size, as for a chapel or for domestic use; a reed organ.

Organ bird (Zo["o]l.), a Tasmanian crow shrike (Gymnorhina organicum). It utters discordant notes like those of a hand organ out of tune.

Organ fish (Zo["o]l.), the drumfish.

Organ gun. (Mil.) Same as Orgue (b) .

Organ harmonium (Mus.), an harmonium of large capacity and power.

Organ of Gorti (Anat.), a complicated structure in the cochlea of the ear, including the auditory hair cells, the rods or fibers of Corti, the membrane of Corti, etc. See Note under Ear.

Organ pipe. See Pipe, n., 1.

Organ-pipe coral. (Zo["o]l.) See Tubipora.

Organ point (Mus.), a passage in which the tonic or dominant is sustained continuously by one part, while the other parts move.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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