Bacchus

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin Bacchus,^{[1][2][3][4][5]} from Ancient Greek Βάκχος (Bákkhos).^[1][2][3][6] The American Heritage Dictionary calls the Greek name of unknown origin.^[3] Etymonline thinks it perhaps related to Latin bacca (“berry, fruit of a tree or shrub”) or taken from an Asian language,^[2] and Klein and Collins connect it with the Latin word, Klein taking the god as originally "the god of grape-berries".^[6][7] Etymonline adds that the god was perhaps at first a Thracian fertility god, Bacchus being a later name of Dionysus.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The god of wine, and hence wine itself: 1508, in William Dunbar's Goldyn Targe in the current OED;^[1] the 1989 edition of the OED dated it to about 1496.^[8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives the 14th century, the Shorter Oxford late Middle English and Etymonline the late 15th century.^[4][5][2]

Semantic evolution

From the god the name passed to wine or strong drink personified,^[1][5] and a son of Bacchus was a heavy drinker.^[1] The Historical Thesaurus links the word between drink and deity in the late 15th century.^[9] Combinations such as Bacchus-like are recorded from 1725.^[8]

Timeline

• 1508 – the god of wine; wine, strong drink.^[1]
• 1725 – combinations such as Bacchus-like.^[8]

Meanings

Proper noun

1. The Greek and Roman god of wine and ecstasy, identified with Dionysus.^[7][4][1]
2. Wine or strong drink personified.^[5][1]

Word family

• Bacchic

Related words

• bacchanal
• Bacchanalia
• bacchant

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk