Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The master or director of a symposium, especially one in ancient Greece.
  • noun A toastmaster.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In Greek antiquity, the president, director, or manager of a symposium or drinking-party; hence, in modern usage, one who presides at a symposium, or the leading spirit of a convivial gathering: applied somewhat familiarly, chiefly with reference to the meetings of noted wits, or literary or learned persons of recognized consequence; specifically, the toast-master of such banquets.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Gr. Antiq.) The master of a feast.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun historical, Ancient Greece The master of a feast.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the person who proposes toasts and introduces speakers at a banquet

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek sumposiarkhos : sumposion, symposium; see symposium + arkhos, ruler; see –arch.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ancient Greek, related to symposium.

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Examples

  • At first this had merely saddened him, but after he had drunk the wine, and Antyllus, Antony's son, in the presence of the revellers, over whom Caesarion presided as "symposiarch" --

    Cleopatra — Volume 04 Georg Ebers 1867

  • At first this had merely saddened him, but after he had drunk the wine, and Antyllus, Antony's son, in the presence of the revellers, over whom Caesarion presided as "symposiarch" --

    Cleopatra — Volume 04 Georg Ebers 1867

  • At first this had merely saddened him, but after he had drunk the wine, and Antyllus, Antony's son, in the presence of the revellers, over whom Caesarion presided as "symposiarch" --

    Cleopatra — Volume 04 Georg Ebers 1867

  • "symposiarch" -- [Director of a banquet.] -- had accused Barine of capturing hearts by magic spells, he had arrived at the conviction that he, too, had been shamefully allured and betrayed.

    Cleopatra — Complete Georg Ebers 1867

  • "symposiarch" -- [Director of a banquet.] -- had accused Barine of capturing hearts by magic spells, he had arrived at the conviction that he, too, had been shamefully allured and betrayed.

    Complete Project Gutenberg Georg Ebers Works Georg Ebers 1867

  • Even after connecting himself with the magazine and becoming the symposiarch of the "Noctes," and perhaps the greatest Tory in all broad Scotland, he did not renounce his home among the lakes.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 17, March, 1859 Various

  • The symposiarch, or arbiter bibendi, settled the proportions to be used.

    Plutarch's Morals 46-120? Plutarch

  • Hawkins, who knew him for so many years, says of him that "as Alexander and Caesar were born for conquest, so was Johnson for the office of a symposiarch, to preside in all conversations"; and he adds, "I never yet saw the man who would venture to contest his right."

    Dr. Johnson and His Circle John Cann Bailey 1897

  • But everybody knew that Aphrodite deemed herself greater than the highest of kings, and therefore Barine ventured to close her doors upon their august symposiarch in a manner which could not fail to be unendurable, not only to him but to all the youth of Alexandria.

    Cleopatra — Volume 04 Georg Ebers 1867

  • When he paused, loud applause rewarded him, and as it reached him from every part of the spacious room, his deep, resonant voice put him in communication even with the more distant guests, and he might have been taken for the symposiarch or director of the banquet.

    Arachne — Volume 06 Georg Ebers 1867

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