elegiac

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The half-hour was underscored with music in a kind of elegiac, Aaron Copland mode -- sorrow and stature.

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Definitions (12)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adjective Of, relating to, or involving elegy or mourning or expressing sorrow for that which is irrecoverably past: an elegiac lament for youthful ideals.
  2. adjective Of or composed in elegiac couplets.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (6)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • The conclusion here is sweetly elegiac, and quite moving But it is the look of the film that most impresses. —  FSF - March2006
  • Those of Rosamond are wholly elegiac, lamentations and meditations recited, without or against occasion. —  Figures of Several Centuries
  • The pathetic sentiment of his farewell to Hrothgar is possibly to be ascribed, in the details of its rhetoric, to the common affection of Anglo-Saxon poetry for the elegiac mood; but the softer passages are not out of keeping with the wilder moments of Beowulf_, and they add greatly to the interest of his character. —  Epic and Romance Essays on Medieval Literature
  • It is in Latin elegiac verse, and as being directed against ambition and discontent may be compared with the first satire of Horace. —  History of English Humour, Vol. 1 (of 2) With an Introduction upon Ancient Humour
  • Imperiale in the Museum Historicum describes him thus: 'Perpetuo moerentis et altius cogitantis gessit aspectum, gracili mento_, facie decolori, conniventibus cavisque oculis Footnote 78: 'La mia fiera malinconia' is a phrase which often recurs in his letters The tone of his literary work, whether in prose or poetry, is elegiac--musically, often querulously plaintive. —  Renaissance in Italy, Volumes 1 and 2 The Catholic Reaction
 

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Late Latin elegīacus, from Greek elegeiakos, from elegeia, elegy; see elegy.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly elegiack; = French élégiaque = Spanish elegíaco = Portuguese Italian elegiaco, from Late Latin elegiacus, from Greek ἐλεγειακός, from ἐλεγεία, ἐλεγεῖον, an elegy: see elegy.
 

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/ɛˈlidʒɪæk/
by American Heritage

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