symposiast

symposiast

English

Etymology

From the Ancient Greek συμποσιαστής (sumposiastḗs, “a fellow-drinker; a boon-companion”), from συμπόσιον (sumpósion), whence symposium.

Noun

symposiast (plural symposiasts)

1. One engaged with others at a banquet or merrymaking.
   • 1842 September 11 Sydney Smith "Letter to Lady Day" in A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith, Volume 2 (1855; London: Longman, Brown, Green) p.469, No.478:

     Lady ――― is tolerably well, with two courses and a French cook. She has fitted up her lower rooms in a very pretty style, and there receives the shattered remains of the symposiasts of the house.

2. A participant in a symposium.
   • 1997, Carl F. Cranor, “A Philosophy of Risk Assessment and the Law: A Case Study of the Role of Philosophy in Public Policy” in Philosophical Studies LXXXV, № 2/3, page 135:

     I can begin to speak to some of these issues and to the charge given the symposiasts by referencing some of my own work which for more than a decade addressed issues in or on the edge of one major public policy debate.

Derived terms

• symposiastic

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for symposiast in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)