Word of the Day

: May 16, 2007

corybantic

adjective kor-ee-BAN-tik

What It Means

: like or in the spirit of a Corybant; especially : wild, frenzied

corybantic in Context

From the sound of the first guitar chord, the mosh pit looked like a swarm of bees in a corybantic dance.

Did You Know?

The big name in goddesses in Phrygia (Asia Minor) in the fifth century B.C. was Cybele (also called Cybebe or Agdistis), the "Great Mother of the Gods." According to Oriental and Greco-Roman mythology, she was the mother of it all: gods, humans, animals . . . even nature itself. The Corybants were Cybele's attendants and priests, and they worshipped her with an unrestrained frenzy of wildly emotional processions, rites, and dances. "Corybantic," the adjective based on the name of Cybele's attendants, can be used to describe anything characterized by a similarly unrestrained abandon.