Bacchanal

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈbækənəl/

Definitions

1. A noisy and wild celebration involving heavy drinking ; a person who takes part in the frenzied festivals of the Roman god Bacchus
2. An uninhibited party marked by excessive alcohol and revelry ; an individual devoted to or celebrating with Bacchic ceremonies
3. An extravagant event characterized by boisterous drinking and dancing ; a participant in ancient rites honoring the god of wine and ecstasy

Etymology: The Roman festival of Bacchanalia honoured the wine god Bacchus, and its Latin adjective "Bacchānālis" meant simply "of or pertaining to Bacchus." English took the adjective and turned it into a noun, so the word originally named a person or thing connected with the god rather than a party. The festivals themselves were notorious. Roman authorities became so alarmed by their wild rites that the Senate suppressed them in 186 BCE, a crackdown recorded by the historian Livy. The modern sense of a drunken, unrestrained celebration grew out of that reputation for frenzy. Writers and painters of later centuries pictured Bacchic revels as scenes of dancing, feasting and drunkenness, and that imagery gradually became the word's core meaning. The older sense of a devotee of Bacchus survives alongside it in the dictionary, so the term now covers both the ancient ritual and the rowdy party that it inspired.

Synonyms: festivity, revelry, celebration, party, jollification

Antonyms: seriousness, sobriety, restraint, formality, asceticism