Orphism
name ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A religious movement in antiquity, supposed to have been founded by Orpheus.
"1974, The Emerson Society Quarterly, Issues 74-81, Emerson Society, page 125, Thoreau's acquaintance with Orphism dated from at least as early as the summer of 1840, when he read Ralph Cudworth's True Intellectual System of the Universe and took notes on some of Cudworth's references to the Orphic religion."
- 2 A minor Cubist art movement focusing on pure abstraction and bright colours.
"“Orphism,” he writes wearily, italicizing the word for effect, “and now we speak of Orphism. Or rather, we do not speak of it. All that we've tried to say has only clouded the question.” The same day Goth's article appeared, two separate caricatures of Orphism also showed up in the popular press—one in Le rire (figure 1.26), the other in Le journal amusant[…]"
Synonyms
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More examples"1974, The Emerson Society Quarterly, Issues 74-81, Emerson Society, page 125, Thoreau's acquaintance with Orphism dated from at least as early as the summer of 1840, when he read Ralph Cudworth's True Intellectual System of the Universe and took notes on some of Cudworth's references to the Orphic religion."
Etymology
From Orpheus + -ism; art sense coined by French poet Guillaume Apollinaire in 1912 as orphisme.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.