ecdysiast

English

WOTD – 1 February 2008

Etymology

Coined by H. L. Mencken from ecdysis (on the model of enthusiast etc.).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛkˈdɪz.i.æst/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

ecdysiast (plural ecdysiasts)

1. 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 2001, p. 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, p. 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

• (dancer who removes their clothes): exotic dancer, stripper

Related terms

• ecdysis
• ecdysone
• striptease

Translations

stripper

• Bulgarian: стриптизьорка f (striptizjorka)
• German: Stripteasetänzer (de) m, Stripteasetänzerin (de) f, Stripper (de) m, Stripperin (de) f, exotischer Tänzer m, exotische Tänzerin f
• Polish: striptizer m, striptizerka f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Romanian: stripper m
• Russian: стриптизёрша (ru) (striptizjórša)