elegy

English

Etymology

From Middle French elegie, from Latin elegīa, from Ancient Greek ἐλεγεία ᾠδή (elegeía ōidḗ, “an elegiac song”), from ἐλεγεία (elegeía), feminine of ἐλεγεῖος (elegeîos, “elegiac”), from ἔλεγος (élegos, “poem or song of lament”), perhaps from Phrygian.

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈɛlɪdʒi/
• Hyphenation: el‧e‧gy

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (CA)

  (file)

Noun

elegy (plural elegies)

1. A mournful or plaintive poem; a funeral song; a poem of lamentation. [from early 16th c.]
2. (music) A composition of mournful character.

Synonyms

• dirge, threnody

Coordinate terms

• requiem – a piece of music played at a mass for the dead

Derived terms

• elegiac

Translations

mournful or plaintive poem or song

• Arabic: رِثَاء‎‎ m (riṯāʾ)
• Bulgarian: елегия (bg) f (elegija)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 挽歌 (zh) (wǎngē) (trad. variant: 輓歌 (zh)), 哀歌 (zh) (āigē)

• Czech: žalozpěv m, elegie (cs) f
• Danish: elegi c, klagesang c, sørgedigt n
• Dutch: klaaglied (nl) n
• Esperanto: elegio
• Finnish: suruvirsi, valitusvirsi (fi), elegia
• French: élégie (fr) f
• German: Elegie (de) f
• Greek: ελεγεία (el) (elegeía)
• Hebrew: קִנָּה‎‎ (he) (kiná)
• Indonesian: elegi (id)
• Irish: marbhna m
• Japanese: 哀歌 (あいか, aika)

• Korean: 만가 (ko) (man-ga)
• Ladino: endecha
• Latin: elegīa f, elegī m pl
• Old Irish: marbnad f
• Polish: elegia (pl) f
• Portuguese: elegia (pt) f
• Russian: эле́гия (ru) f (elégija)
• Scottish Gaelic: cumha m, tuireadh m, marbhnach m, marbhrann m
• Serbo-Croatian: narikača (sh) f, žalopojka (sh) f, tužbalica (sh) f, elegija (sh) f
• Spanish: elegía (es) f,
• Swedish: elegi (sv) c
• Turkish: ağıt (tr), sagu (tr), mersiye (tr)
• Welsh: marwnad f
• Yiddish: עלעגיע‎‎ f (elegye)
• Zazaki: hewal

See also

• eulogy – similar sounding funeral word

Anagrams

• lyege