dithyramb
pronunciation
How to pronounce dithyramb in British English:
UK ['dɪθɪræmb]
How to pronounce dithyramb in American English:
US ['dɪθəˌræmb]
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- Noun:
- a wildly enthusiastic speech or piece of writing
- (ancient Greece) a passionate hymn (usually in honor of Dionysus)
Word Origin
- dithyramb (n.)
- c. 1600, from Latin dithyrambus, from Greek dithyrambos, which is of unknown origin, perhaps a pre-Hellenic loan-word. A wild choric hymn, originally in honor of Dionysus or Bacchus. Related: Dithyrambic.
Example
- 1. Of the kinds of words we have enumerated it may be observed that compounds are most in place in the dithyramb , strange words in heroic , and metaphors in iambic poetry .