dithyrambic

English edit

Etymology edit

dithyramb +‎ -ic

Adjective edit

dithyrambic (comparative more dithyrambic, superlative most dithyrambic)

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.

Noun edit

dithyrambic (plural dithyrambics)

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.