nebris

Definitions

noun A fawn-skin; specifically, in ancient Greek and affiliated art and ceremonial, the skin of a fawn or of a similar animal, as a kid, worn as a special attribute by Dionysus or Bacchus and his attendant train (Pan, the satyrs, the mænads, etc.), and assumed on festival occasions by priests and priestesses of Bacchus, and by his votaries generally.
noun A genus of sciænoid fishes found on both coasts of tropical America.

From Latin nebris, from Ancient Greek νεβρίς, earlier νεβρός ("fawn").

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Similarly the spots on the nebris of Dionysus, thought of sometimes as stars (+apo tês tôn astrôn poikilias+, Diodorus, I. 11), as well as those of his panthers, and the cloudings of the tortoise-shell of Hermes, are all significant of this light of the sky broken by cloud-shadow.

Lectures on Art Delivered before the University of Oxford in Hilary term, 1870 John Ruskin 1859
Nodem hiememque ferens; et inhorruit unda te - nebris.

P. Virgilii Maronis opera: emendabat et notulis illustr. G. Wakefield Virgil, Publius Vergilius Maro 1796
That means also that the world round them has again returned to the Greek conviction, that all nature, especially human nature, is not entirely melodious nor luminous; but a barred and broken thing: that saints have their foibles, sinners their forces; that the most luminous virtue is often only a flash, and the blackest-looking fault is sometimes only a stain: and, without confusing in the least black with white, they can forgive, or even take delight in things that are like the [Greek: nebris], dappled.

Lectures on Art Delivered before the University of Oxford in Hilary term, 1870 John Ruskin 1859
a nebris, and expressing tender and dreamy emotions.

The Old Roman World, : the Grandeur and Failure of Its Civilization. John Lord 1852

she commented on the word nebris

n., The skin of an animal (usually a fawn), esp. as worn by Dionysus and his votaries (either fr. classical Latin nebris, a fawn-skin worn by Bacchus and his votaries, or its etymon in ancient Greek).

September 1, 2008
sionnach commented on the word nebris

When Lev asked me to come to de bris
I thought I would wear my nebris
But that hamfisted mohel
(An ignorant yokel)
Got it spattered with bloody debris.

April 15, 2009