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  1. eisteddfod love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. An annual competitive festival of Welsh poets and musicians.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. An assembly; a meeting: specifically applied to a national assembly or congress of bards and minstrels held periodically in Wales. The eisteddfod is a very ancient institution, but its modern form dates from about the twelfth century. It is designed to foster patriotism, to encourage the study of the Welsh language and literature, and to promote the cultivation of the ancient bardic poetry and music of the principality. Since 1819 an eisteddfod has been held almost every year. It usually attracts thousands of persons from all parts of the country, and lasts three or four days, which are devoted to orations and contests in poetry, singing, harping, etc.; and prizes are awarded, amid much enthusiasm and ceremony, to the successful competitors. The proceedings are conducted partly in Welsh and partly in English. Similar meetings are sometimes held in the United States by citizens of Welsh origin.

Wiktionary

  1. n. Any of several annual festivals in which Welsh poets, dancers, and musicians compete for recognition.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. An assembly or session of the Welsh bards; an annual congress of bards, minstrels and literati of Wales, -- being a patriotic revival of the old custom.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. any of several annual Welsh festivals involving artistic competitions (especially in singing)

Etymologies

  1. From Welsh eisteddfod ("session"), from eistedd (“to sit”) +‎ bod (“to be”) (be sitting). (Wiktionary)
  2. Welsh : eistedd, sitting, + bod, to be. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “More than 4,000 competitors from more than 50 countries are taking part in this year's eisteddfod, which is celebrating its 65th anniversary.”

    BBC News - Home

  • “Perhaps it was just disappointment that caused what Amis later described as the “eisteddfod of hostility” that greeted its publication.”

    Tasteless Sausage on Martin Amis

  • “• Cardiff is the capital city - there is an additional focus on an eisteddfod in the capital.”

    Labour: no presence at the Eisteddfod

  • “It's also, weirdly, a formal, public celebration of spoken language, a kind of political eisteddfod.”

    Obama & the Conquest of Denver

  • ““I suppose by graduate bard you mean one who has gained the chair at an eisteddfod?” said the man in grey.”

    Wild Wales : Its People, Language and Scenery

  • “He said that he had himself won the prize for the best englyn on a particular subject at an eisteddfod at which Sir Watkin Williams Wynn presided, and at which Heber, afterwards Bishop of Calcutta, was present, who appeared to understand Welsh well, and who took much interest in the proceedings of the meeting.”

    Wild Wales : Its People, Language and Scenery

  • “A final decision on the future of the eisteddfod as an organisation had not yet been taken.”

    ANC Daily News Briefing

  • “A Welsh choir, unless it was competing at an eisteddfod, really did not need to have someone stand in front of it beating time or forcing changes of volume or tempo.”

    Truly

  • “For years she had been the leading contralto in chapel and for years she had brought home the solo prize for contraltos at every eisteddfod within a radius of twenty miles from Glynderi.”

    Truly

  • “Scottish highland wrestle, or hideous prize fight with all their accompaniments of vice and brutality, may surely well spare the ridicule and contempt with which they visit the pleasant Welsh eisteddfod.”

    The Poetry of Wales

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‘eisteddfod’ has been looked up 1188 times, loved by 1 person, added to 10 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 16.