[ad. Gr. συμποσίαρχος, f. συμπόσιον SYMPOSIUM + ἀρχός ruler, chief.] The master, director, or president of a symposium; the leader of a convivial gathering.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 641. What maner of person the Symposiarch or master of the feast ought to be.
1660. Stanley, Hist. Philos., IX. (1701), 431/1. He staid for the chief Magistrate. As soon as he came, he was made Symposiarch, Master of the Feast.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Declam. in Def. Gaming, Wks. 1709, III. 139. Under the … direction of some certain prudent and sober Symposiarchs, or Masters of the Feasts.
1787. Hawkins, Life of Johnson, 258. So was Johnson [born] for the office of a symposiarch, to preside in all conversations.
1878. F. Ferguson, Pop. Life Christ, I. xii. 133. We shall be ready to exclaim with Cana’s surprised symposiarch, ‘Thou hast kept the good wine until now.’
1882. Athenæum, 14 Jan., 54/1. The criticisms of Shakspeare’s plays that went on at the Mermaid under symposiarch Ben Jonson.
1895. Burness, in Anna M. Stoddart, Blackie, II. xxi. 245. Fixing his eye on the symposiarch, he rose to propose the health of that gentleman.
