Monday, April 18, 2011

Corybantic

Corybantic \kawr-uh-BAN-tik\ , adjective;
1. Frenzied; agitated; unrestrained

Corybant is first attested in 1374 by Chaucer. It's "A priest of Phrygian worship of Cybele, which was performed with noisy and extravagant dances." Corybantic was one of the first derivations of this word (first attested in 1642) and it means "of, pertaining to, or resembling the Corybantes or their rites." The English version of the word is taken from French Corybante, which comes from Latin Corybant-em, which derived from Greek Κορύβᾱς.

I really know nothing about mythology, Greek or otherwise. But, here's the Wikipedia article about the Korybantes if you're interested.

Today's word and the first definition were both taken from Dictionary.com's 'Word of the Day' for Monday, April 18
Etymologies come from the Oxford English Dictionary and/or Etymonline.com

No comments:

Post a Comment