Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Greek Mythology A woman member of the orgiastic cult of Dionysus.
- noun A frenzied woman.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In Greek myth, a female member of the attendant train of Bacchus; hence, a priestess of Bacchus; one of the women who celebrated the festivals of Bacchus with mad songs and dancing and boisterous courses in gay companies amid the crags of Parnassus and Cithæron, particularly on the occasion of the great triennial Bacchic festival.
- noun Hence Any woman under the influence of unnatural excitement or frenzy.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A Bacchante; a priestess or votary of Bacchus.
- noun A frantic or frenzied woman.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Greek mythology A female follower of
Dionysus , associated with intensereveling . - noun An excessively
wild oremotional woman .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an unnaturally frenzied or distraught woman
- noun (Greek mythology) a woman participant in the orgiastic rites of Dionysus
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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In the second book of Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series “Living Dead In Dallas”, a creature called a maenad is introduced.
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I know talking about vampires, werewolves, shape-shifters, etc. as "reality" is stretching things juuust a bit, but a maenad was a little too much to chew on.
True Blood Season 2 Finale, Beyond Here Lies Nothin - What Did You Think? | /Film 2009
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If it's not witches (a la "True Blood's" detour last summer into the "maenad" orgy-mama storyline; boy, did she get tiresome), then it's werewolves.
Season 3 of 'True Blood' adds a power struggle and many new characters 2010
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"maenad," a creature out of Greek mythology who worships Dionysus, Greek god of wine and drunkenness.
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Think back to the sacrifices he was willing to make to keep Sookie and the town of Bon Temps safe from the maenad, Maryanne.
The Many Loves Of Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood, Season 3) | myFiveBest 2010
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The maenad lived in the woods and was responsible for scratching the heck out of Sookie.
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This maenad that I have defaced here is one of my favorites but obviously she has no body and I kind of want a big piece, full body, dancing, etc.
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There has been speculation that the character of Mary Ann is actually the maenad.
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This maenad that I have defaced here is one of my favorites but obviously she has no body and I kind of want a big piece, full body, dancing, etc.
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Unleashed, she is a maenad: not crabby but sardonic and perpetually restless, she scrambles over the stage, squaring up to several men at a time; she drinks from a hip flask; she wees; she smokes – and she fumes.
The Taming of the Shrew; The Trial of Ubu; Our New Girl – review 2012
vanishedone commented on the word maenad
WeirdNet, pretending just once that women generally are frenzied bacchantes would have done.
May 12, 2008
milosrdenstvi commented on the word maenad
Not to be confused with a monad.
March 15, 2009
tonyr21 commented on the word maenad
I came across this word in reading the first two vampire books by Charlaine Harris: Dead Until Dark & Living Dead in Dallas. When a character is called a Maenad, it was the first time I ever heard the word. The Harris books are the basis of the HBO series "TrueBlood".
June 6, 2009