maenad
noun
mae·nad ˈmē-ˌnad 
1
: bacchante
2
: an unnaturally excited or distraught woman
maenadic
mē-ˈna-dik
adjective 
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web Manson’s maenads — dirty, barefoot examples of Dionysian abandon — provide the most fascinating sequences of QT’s career. 
Armond White, National Review, 26 July 2019 All across its 375 square feet swarm birds, masks and maenads—the besotted followers of the god Dionysus. Joshua Levine, Smithsonian, 24 May 2018 The libretto from the premiere has Orpheus being torn to pieces by maenads, the female devotees of Bacchus whose bloodthirsty rampages figure in both the mythology and evidently the historical truth of ancient Greece. Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle, 21 Apr. 2018 An actor’s dance becomes a slaughter; a bathing nymph turns out to be one of a cluster of handless maenads. Douglas Wolk, New York Times, 1 June 2016 Often faces turned up to address the sky, as with the maenads and nymphs whose shapes in Greek sculpture did so much to inspire Duncan. Alastair Macaulay, New York Times, 20 June 2017
Armond White, National Review, 26 July 2019 All across its 375 square feet swarm birds, masks and maenads—the besotted followers of the god Dionysus. Joshua Levine, Smithsonian, 24 May 2018 The libretto from the premiere has Orpheus being torn to pieces by maenads, the female devotees of Bacchus whose bloodthirsty rampages figure in both the mythology and evidently the historical truth of ancient Greece. Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle, 21 Apr. 2018 An actor’s dance becomes a slaughter; a bathing nymph turns out to be one of a cluster of handless maenads. Douglas Wolk, New York Times, 1 June 2016 Often faces turned up to address the sky, as with the maenads and nymphs whose shapes in Greek sculpture did so much to inspire Duncan. Alastair Macaulay, New York Times, 20 June 2017 Word History
Etymology
Latin maenad-, maenas, from Greek mainad-, mainas, from mainesthai to be mad; akin to Greek menos spirit — more at mind
First Known Use
1579, in the meaning defined at sense 1
- in a way
- in a wink
- in a word
- in a world of one's own
- in a/one sense
- in abeyance
- in absentia
- in abstracto
- in abundance
- in accord
- in accord with
- in accordance with
- in actual fact
- in actuality
- in addition
- in addition to
- in advance
- in advance of
- in aeternum
- in agreement
- in aid of
- in alignment
- in all
- in all but name
- in all conscience