Dictionary

dithyramb en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈdɪθ.ɪ.ɹæm/

Etymology

From Latin dithyrambus, from Ancient Greek δῑθύραμβος (dīthúrambos). According to the American Heritage Dictionary, it is of non-Indo-European origin (Pre-Greek substrate, Illyrian/Phrygian), related to θρίαμβος (thríambos) and ἴαμβος (íambos). Brandenstein also compares Sanskrit अङ्ग (aṅga, “member”).

Meanings

1. A raucous and ardent choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus.
   • Now of the numerical constitution of the chorus before Aeschylus we know nothing; but to him, in the Suppliant Maidens at least, it was a happy coincidence that the myth gave to Danaüs fifty daughters, a number exactly equal to that of the chorus of the dithyramb, from which tragedy itself had sprung. 1924, Herbert Weir Smyth, “II. The Suppliant Maidens”, in Aeschylean Tragedy, page 51:
2. A poem or oration in the same style.
   • While those who drown a truth’s empiric part In dithyramb or dogma turn frenetic; — Than whom no writer could be less poetic He left this lesson for all verse, all art. 1969, Robert Conquest, “George Orwell”, in Arias from a Love Opera, and Other Poems, Macmillan, page 32:
3. An impassioned speech; a rant.
   • During the seven decades that have elapsed since that distracted wife, mother, and blindly impassioned mistress threw herself beneath the wheels of the train - thus terminating, with a gesture symbolic of what already had happened to her soul, her tragedy of disorientation - a tumultuous and unremitting dithyramb of romances, news reports, and unrecorded cries of anguish has been going up to the honor of the bull-demon of the labyrinth: the wrathful, destructive, maddening aspect of the same god who, when benign, is the vivifying principle of the world. 1968, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 2nd edition, London: Fontana Press, published 1993, page 25:

Forms

Deriveds

dithyrambic

Synonyms

diatribe · j'accuse · dithyramb · admonition · tirade · rant · impugnation · philippic · harangue · condemnation · jeremiad · slanging match · polemic · screed

Translations (28)

eu ditiranbo (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · fi dityrambi (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · pl dytyramb (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · eo ditirambo (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · be дыфіра́мб (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · de Dithyrambos (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · et ditüramb (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · ru дифира́мб (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · hu dithürambosz (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · nn høgstemt(d) lovsong (a poem or oration in the same style) · bg дитира́мб (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · uk дифіра́мб (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · uk дитира́мб (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · sk dityramb (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · ru дифира́мб (a poem or oration in the same style) · nb høystemt lovsang (a poem or oration in the same style) · ca ditirambe (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · el διθύραμβος (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · mk дитирамб (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · it ditirambo (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · es ditirambo (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · io ditirambo (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · fr dithyrambe (a poem or oration in the same style) · fr dithyrambe (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · fi dityrambi (a poem or oration in the same style) · grc διθύραμβος (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · no dityrambe (a choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus) · pl dytyramb (a poem or oration in the same style)