maenad

Noun

maenad (plural maenads or maenades)

1. (Greek, also, attributive) A female follower of Dionysus (“the god of wine”), associated with intense revelling.
   • VVild yuie) for it is dedicated to Bacchus & therefore it is ſayd that the Mænades (that is Bacchus franticke prieſtes) vſed in theyr ſacrifice to carry Thyrſos, vvhich vvere pointed ſtaues or Iauelins, vvrapped about vvith yuie.1579, E. K., “[October. Ægloga Decima.] Glosse.”, in Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC, folio 43, verso
   • The ſecrets of the good goddeſs are knovvn, vvhen the pipe the loins / Incites; and alſo vvith the horn, and vvith vvine, the Mænads of Priapus / Are driven, aſtoniſhed, and toſs their hair and hovvl.1789, Juvenal, “Satire VI”, in M[artin] Madan, transl., A New and Literal Translation of Juvenal and Persius; […], volume I, London: […] [F]or the editor, and sold at T. Becket’s, […], →OCLC, page...

   Synonyms:

   Baccha, bacchante, Bassarid

2. (broadly, derogatory, literary) An excessively emotional or wild woman.
   • Blanche Stroeve was in the cruel grip of appetite. Perhaps she hated Strickland still, but she hungered for him, and everything that had made up her life till then became of no account. She ceased to be a woman, complex, kind and petulant, considerate and thoughtless; she was a Maenad. She was...1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter XXX, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC, page 162