from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
noun Any of the minor woodland deities and companions of Dionysus, depicted on Greek vases as men with the tails, ears, and hooves of horses.
from The Century Dictionary.
noun In Gr. myth, a divinity of Asiatic origin, the foster-father of Bacchus, and leader of the satyrs, but very frequently merely one of a number of kindred attendants in the Dionysiae thiasus.
noun In entomology, a genus of coleopterous insects of the family Eucnemidæ. Same as Anelastes, Latreille.
noun In mammal, a genus of macaques, named from Macacus silenus, the wanderoo.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
noun (Zoöl.) See wanderoo.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
noun any of the minor woodland deities who were companions of Dionysus (similar to the satyrs)
noun the chief satyr in the service of Bacchus; father of Dionysus; usually depicted as drunk and jolly and riding a donkey
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Latin sīlēnus, from Greek sīlēnos, from Sīlēnos, Silenus.]
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Examples
Description: Forest fragmentation is threatening populations of the lion-tailed macaque (Macaca silenus) by separating sub-populations and restricting them to small fragments with high population densities.
The charismatic endangered lion-tailed macaque (Macaca silenus) and Nilgiri macaque (Semnopithecus johnii) are other endemic species that need intact habitat and are highly threatened by habitat conversion.
There has been a certain amount of confusion between this animal and _Inuus silenus_, the lion monkey, which had the name _Wanderu_ applied to it by Buffon, and it is so figured in
(_Jerdon_), also Ceylon (_Cuvier_ and _Horsfield_), though not confirmed by Emerson Tennent, who states that the _silenus_ is not found in the island except as introduced by Arab horse-dealers occasionally, and that it certainly is not indigenous.
i agree with silenus! do these MPs not listen to the mood of the public. i am astonished that beckett is even being considered for speaker especially with her track record on expenses. it's a joke!
whichbe commented on the word silenus
Tipsy person. (from Phrontistery)
May 23, 2008