ecdysiast
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Coined by H. L. Mencken from ecdysis (“moulting”) (on the model of enthusiast etc.).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
ecdysiast (plural ecdysiasts)
- (uncommon) An erotic dancer who removes their clothes as a form of entertainment; a stripper.
- 1973, Kyril Bonfiglioli, Don't Point That Thing at Me, Penguin, published 2001, page 79:
- I had never seen an ecdysiast before; toward the end she was wearing nothing but seven beads, four of them sweat.
- 2004, Chrysti the Wordsmith, Verbivore's Feast: A Banquet of Word and Phrase Origins, Farcountry Press, page 107:
- However, the Queen of Ecdysiasts, Gypsy Rose Lee, was not amused. In a 1940 interview, she leveled her guns against Mencken: "Ecdysiast, he calls me! Why, the man... has been reading books! Dictionaries! We don't wear feathers and molt them off... What does he know about stripping?"
Synonyms[edit]
- (dancer who removes their clothes): exotic dancer, stripper
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
stripper — see stripper