Related Words

GOAT: Acronym for the 'greatest of all time'

Composite Monster: (in architecture, often called a chimera after the Greek monster) The term is one mythologists use to describe the fantastical creatures in Assyrian, Babylonian, Greek, and medieval European . . . View Full Definition

Bodhran: Hand-held frame drum with a single goatskin head: used in Irish traditional music.

Sestina: A poem consisting of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy, where the words ending the lines of the first stanza are repeated in a different order at the end of lines in each of the su . . . View Full Definition

Dionysia: The Athenian religious festivals celebrating Dionysus in March-April. Dionysus (Roman Bacchus) was the god of intoxication, celebration, powerful emotion, and loss of self-control. At his fe . . . View Full Definition

Folklore: Sayings, verbal compositions, stories, and social rituals passed along by word of mouth rather than written down in a text. Folklore includes superstitions, modern 'urban legends', proverbs, . . . View Full Definition

Witchs Familiar: In the eyes of medieval and Renaissance churchmen, and in much of medieval and Renaissance literature, it was a common belief that witches kept familiars. These familiars were thought to be . . . View Full Definition

Vellum: The skin of a young calf used as a writing surface--the medieval equivalent of 'paper.' A technical distinction is usually made between vellum and parchment, the latter is made from goatskin . . . View Full Definition

Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (Tses): The name of a number of degenerative brain diseases that infect humans and animals. For example, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) infects cattle: scrapie infects sheep and goats: Creut . . . View Full Definition

Scrapie: A fatal, degenerative neurological disease of sheep and goats. The similarity of scrapie to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) (mad cow) disease in cattle, with the possibility of subseq . . . View Full Definition