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Jan 29, 2016
This week’s theme
Words from mythology

This week’s words
autolycan
herculean
titan
siren song
bacchant

The Boy Bacchus
The Boy Bacchus (it’s never too early to start)
Art: Guido Reni (1575-1642)

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Four-letter words
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

bacchant

PRONUNCIATION:
(buh-KANT, -KAHNT, BAK-uhnt)

MEANING:
noun: A boisterous reveler.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Bacchus, the god of wine in Roman mythology. His Greek equivalent is Dionysus who gave us the word dionysian. Earliest documented use:1699. A related term is bacchanal.

USAGE:
“I did not, as a young bacchant in the ‘60s and ‘70s, absent myself from the garden of herbal and pharmacological delights -- far from it -- so I found myself in an odd position, that is, lecturing a parent about drugs.”
Christopher Buckley; Mum and Pup And Me; The New York Times Magazine; Apr 26, 2009.

See more usage examples of bacchant in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Love, friendship, respect, do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something. -Anton Chekhov, short-story writer and dramatist (29 Jan 1860-1904)

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