dithyrambic

English

Etymology

From dithyramb +‎ -ic.

Adjective

dithyrambic (comparative more dithyrambic, superlative most dithyrambic)

1. Of, pertaining to, or resembling a dithyramb; especially, passionate, intoxicated with enthusiasm.
   • 1907, William James, Pragmatism:

     Signor Papini, the leader of italian pragmatism, grows fairly dithyrambic over the view that it opens, of man's divinely-creative functions.

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 236:

     Bradly was out of bed, blundering across the floor to kneel by her and pat reassurance on her satin-smooth shoulders. She gripped him with both arms, holding him tight against the convulsive shudder that rejected terror in the security of his arms. Confounded by a dithyrambic conflict of fear and exultation, Bradly could only snatch at one coherent thought, "Damme, after the old bitch accusin' me..."

   • 1985, Paul Binding, Harmonica's Bridegroom‎^[1], →ISBN, page 131:

     ... thighs appear to be continuously alighting and pausing in mid-air, detached from their dithyrambic owners, like luminous birds on the wing.

   • 2000, Ian C. Johnston, The Birth of Tragedy [2] by Friedrich Nietzsche, page 104:

     The dithyrambic chorus is a chorus of transformed people, for whom their social past, their civic position, is entirely forgotten.

   • 2005, William Forbes Gray, Some Old Scots Judges: Anecdotes and Impressions‎^[3], →ISBN, page 25:

     Nevertheless, if one has time and, still more, the patience to search whole acres of dithyrambic prose, he shall have his reward.

Derived terms

• dithyrambically
• undithyrambic

 

Noun

dithyrambic (plural dithyrambics)

1. A dithyramb.
   • 1775, Anonymous, review of the West translation of Pindar's Olympic Odes, in The Critical Review, volume 40, ^[4] page 451,

     As we have no remains of the dithyrambics of the ancients, we cannot exactly ascertain the measure.