thyrsus

noun, plural thyr·si [thur-sahy] /ˈθɜr saɪ/.

1. Botany. a thyrse.
2. Greek Antiquity. a staff tipped with a pine cone and sometimes twined with ivy and vine branches, borne by Dionysus and his votaries.

noun plural -si (-saɪ)

1. Greek myth a staff, usually one tipped with a pine cone, borne by Dionysus (Bacchus) and his followers
2. a variant spelling of thyrse

n.1590s, from Greek thyrsos, literally “stalk or stem of a plant,” a non-Greek word of unknown origin. The staff or spear tipped with an ornament like a pine cone, and sometimes wreathed in ivy or vine branches, borne by Dionysus and his votaries.