Word of the Day for Monday, April 18, 2011
corybantic \kawr-uh-BAN-tik\, adjective:
Frenzied; agitated; unrestrained.
The B.O. and his regime have been in a corybantic state ever since Rep. Paul Ryan presented his proposed budget!
--Spy Maker, JSA's Blog
The key turned with a snap, the door was flung open, and there stood Martha, in a corybantic attitude, brandishing a dinner-plate in one hand, a poker in the other ; her hair was dishevelled, her face red, and fury blazed in her eyes.-- George Gissing, Will Warburton: A Romance of Life
I have a vivid recollection of him in the mysteries of the semicuacua, a somewhat corybantic dance which left much to the invention of the performers, and very little to the imagination of the spectator.-- Bret Harte, The Writings of Bret Harte: Volume 10
Corybantic owes its English use from Latin, but originally refered to a Corybant, a a wild attendant of the goddess Cybele.
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