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A.Word.A.Day--anacreontic

Anacreontic (uh-nak-ree-ON-tik) adjective

Celebrating love and drinking.

noun

An Anacreontic poem.

[After Anacreon, a Greek poet in the 6th century BCE, noted for his songs in praise of love and wine.]

The US national anthem 'The Star-Spangled Banner' is set to the tune of the English song 'To Anacreon in Heaven' which was the 'constitutional song' of the Anacreontic Society, a gentlemen's music club in London.

"Some days passed before I could rid my thoughts of Thecla ... who had initiated me into the anacreontic diversions and fruitions of men and women." Gene Wolfe; Shadow & Claw; Orb Books; 1994.

"It was the 20th-century extracts which fired the imagination two extracts from Augusta Read Thomas's l2-part Love Songs - one ('The Rub of Love') a pithy, short Anacreontic, the other ('Alas, the love of women!') a wittily contrived parody." Roderic Dunnett; Voices From Another World; Independent (London, UK); Apr 14, 1999.

This week's theme: eponyms.

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