thyrsus

Forms

thyrsus m (genitive thyrsī); second declension^[1] Statius has the accusative plural thyrsa.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek θύρσος (thúrsos, “plant stalk, Bacchic staff”).^[2][3][1] Köbler, after Frisk, calls the Greek word a loanword of unknown origin, and Etymonline reports that it is considered not to be Greek.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest quotation is from Catullus, of thyrsi shaken with covered points.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It is the wand of Bacchus and his followers, tipped with a pine cone or a tuft of ivy or vine leaves, which originally hid a spear point.^[2][6] Lucretius uses it of poetic inspiration: the hope of fame has struck his heart with a sharp thyrsus.^[2] Its first meaning is a plant's main stem, as in Pliny the Elder, Suetonius and Columella's lettuce with a white stalk.^[6][2] Through a Vulgar Latin form *tursus, the word gave Italian torso, the trunk of a statue, which English borrowed in 1797.^[5]

Timeline

• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of Bacchic wands.^[2][4]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of poetic inspiration.^[2][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it.^[4]
• 1st century AD – Columella of a lettuce stalk.^[2][4]
• 1590s – English borrows it.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thyrsus, the wand of Bacchus and the Bacchants, tipped with a pine cone or ivy; figuratively, a spur of inspiration.^[2][6][1]
2. The main stem or stalk of a plant.^[2][6][7]

Word family

• thyrsiculus
• thyrsiger

Related words

• English thyrsus
• English torso

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson