maenad

See also: mænad

English

Etymology

From Latin maenas (“bacchant”), from Ancient Greek μαινάς (mainás, “raving, frantic”), from Ancient Greek μαίνομαι (maínomai, “be furious”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmiː.næd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

maenad (plural maenads or maenades)

Furious maenad

1. (Greek mythology) A female follower of Dionysus, associated with intense reveling.
   • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 30”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

     Blanche Stroeve was in the cruel grip of appetite. Perhaps she hated Strickland still, but she hungered for him, and everything that had made up her life till then became of no account. She ceased to be a woman, complex, kind and petulant, considerate and thoughtless; she was a Maenad. She was desire.

2. An excessively wild or emotional woman.

Derived terms

• maenadic
• maenadism

Translations

follower of Dionysus

• Catalan: mènada f
• Dutch: maenade
• Esperanto: menado
• Estonian: menaad
• French: ménade (fr) f
• Greek:

  Ancient: μαινάς f (mainás)

• Macedonian: мена́да f (menáda)
• Polish: menada
• Russian: мена́да (ru) f (menáda)
• Spanish: ménade (es) f
• Swedish: menad (sv)

Anagrams

• anadem