symposion

S1Y4M3P3O1S1I1O1N1

noun

A drinking together; a symposium.

RareScrabble 16

Meanings

noun
  1. historicalA drinking together; a symposium.

    Thus, what begins as a komastic venture does not end in a symposion, even though the action keeps it firmly in mind.

    2013, Fiona Hobden, The Symposion in Ancient Greek Society and Thought, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 177
    3 more examples

    Captain Waverley,—my young and esteemed friend, Mr Falconer of Balmawhapple, has craved of my age and experience, as of one not wholly unskilled in the dependencies and punctilios of the duello or monomachia, to be his interlocutor in expressing to you the regret with which he calls to remembrance certain passages of our symposion last night, which could not but be highly displeasing to you, as serving for the time under this present existing government.

    1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], “Repentance, and a Reconciliation”, in Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 162

    The imagery is that of marriage, the iconographic theme was borrowed from the banquet, but these divine couples are not participating in a symposion.

    2011, Pauline Schmitt Pantel, “Dionysos, the Banquet and Gender”, in Renate Schlesier, editor, A Different God? Dionysos and Ancient Polytheism, De Gruyter, →ISBN, section “Dionysiac Realms in Perspective”, page 134

    The addition of inscribed names can indicate that the symposion is mythological, as on the Eurytios krater, where Herakles is depicted banqueting as a guest of the king (Paris, Musée du Louvre, E635, Payne, 1931: pl. 27).

    2011, Alexandra Alexandridou, The Early Black-Figured Pottery of Attika in Context (c. 630-570 bce) (Monumenta Graeca et Romana; 17), Brill, →ISBN, page 67, column 2

Origin

  1. Ancient Greekσυμπόσιον
  2. Ancient Greekσυμπόσιον
  3. Englishsymposion

Borrowed from Ancient Greek συμπόσιον (sumpósion).

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

symposion. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/symposion

MLA

“symposion.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/symposion. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “symposion,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/symposion.

Source: symposion on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.