Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A poem composed in elegiac couplets.
- n. A poem or song composed especially as a lament for a deceased person.
- n. Something resembling such a poem or song.
- n. Music A composition that is melancholy or pensive in tone.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In classical poetry, a poem written in elegiac verse.
- n. A mournful or plaintive poem; a poem or song expressive of sorrow and lamentation; a dirge; a funeral song.
- n. Any serious poem pervaded by a tone of melancholy, whether grief is actually expressed or not: as, Gray's “Elegy in a Country Churchyard.”
- n. In music, a sad or funeral composition, vocal or instrumental, whether actually commemorative or not; a dirge. Synonyms Dirge, Requiem, etc. See
dirge .
Wiktionary
- n. A mournful or plaintive poem; a funeral song; a poem of lamentation.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A mournful or plaintive poem; a funereal song; a poem of lamentation.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a mournful poem; a lament for the dead
Etymologies
- 1514, from Middle French elegie, from Latin elegia, from Ancient Greek ἐλεγεία ᾠδή ("an elegaic song"), from ἐλεγεία, feminine of ἐλεγεῖος ("elegaic"), from ἔλεγος ("poem or song of lament"), perhaps from Phrygian. (Wiktionary)
- French élégie, from Latin elegīa, from Greek elegeia, from pl. of elegeion, elegiac distich, from elegos, song, mournful song. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The elegy is one of our necessary forms as we try to come to terms with the fact that people around us die, that we, too, will die.”
“The other elegy is shorter and less striking in conception, but gives a similar impression of the importance assigned to Louis de”
“This inimitable pathetic elegy is supposed by many writers to have become a national war song, and to have been taught to the young Israelites under the name of "The Bow," in conformity with the practice of Hebrew and many classical writers in giving titles to their songs from the principal theme (Ps 22: 1; 56: 1; 60: 1; 80: 1; 100: 1).”
“The annex'd elegy is on a gravestone in the churchyard at Hythe.”
The annex'd elegy is on a gravestone in the churchyard at Hythe.
“The second alphabetical elegy is set to the same mournful tune with the former, and the substance of it is much the same; it begins with Ecah, as that did, How sad is our case!”
“1794.14 - "The annex'd elegy is on a gravestone in the churchyard at Hythe.”
The annex'd elegy is on a gravestone in the churchyard at Hythe.
“As elsewhere in Canto 2, here the occasion for elegy is young male loveliness dead betimes: "Thou art gone, thou lov'd and lovely one,/Whom youth and youth's affection bound to me" (st.”
“The form of the elegy is a dialogue betwixt a passenger and a domestic servant.”
“War Poetry in the Age of Romanticism 1793-1815/1794.14 "The annex'd elegy is on a gravestone in the churchyard at Hythe." ”
The annex'd elegy is on a gravestone in the churchyard at Hythe.
“Except the fifth elegy, which is tainted with immodesty, the others, particularly the first, are highly beautiful, and may be placed in competition with any other productions of the elegiac kind.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘elegy’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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Prosody
Your terms and additions are welcome.
headless iamb, tailless trochee, dibrach, disyllable, trisyllable, tetrasyllable, pyrrhus, iamb, trochee, choree, choreus, tribrach and 203 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 567 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 more...
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[Open] Frequently confused and misused
Words that are often used to mean something other than what they mean to lexicographers.
apprehensible, immanent, eminent, seamen, venal, venial, brassiere, brassier, brasserie, brazier, brasier, elegy and 38 more...
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songs for the dead
various funerary productions
lament, epicedium, dirge, requiem, elegy, exequy, obsequies, epicede, Thanatopsis, trental, threnody, myriologue and 32 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1896 more...
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Hit Parade GRE
Princeton Review words
abscond, aberrant, alacrity, anomaly, approbation, arduous, assuage, audacious, austere, axiomatic, canonical, capricious and 287 more...
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Verba Dilecta
delectable, notate, pauciloquy, paucity, pauciloquent, paucify, interscapilium, uropygium, inferna, nota, equipollent, prepollent and 677 more...
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My preparation
for GRE ofcourse
morbid, disparate, incipient, exonerate, engross, ebullient, predilection, propensity, allure, qualms, chastise, perpetuate and 111 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for elegy.
Dan337
Jan 1, 2011milosrdenstvi "Their name, their years, spelt by th' unletter'd Muse,
The place of fame and elegy supply:
And many a holy text around she strews,
That teach the rustic moralist to die."
-- Thomas Gray, "Elegy Written in a Country Church-yard Jun 18, 2009