elegy

[el-i-jee]

noun

plural

elegies 

1. a mournful, melancholy, or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.

2. a poem written in elegiac meter.

3. a sad or mournful musical composition.

elegy

/ ˈɛlɪdʒɪ /

noun

1. a mournful or plaintive poem or song, esp a lament for the dead

2. poetry or a poem written in elegiac couplets or stanzas

elegy

1. A form of poetry that mourns the loss of someone who has died or something that has deteriorated. A notable example is the “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” by Thomas Gray. (Compare eulogy.)

Confusables Note

See eulogy

Word History and Origins

Origin of elegy¹

First recorded in 1505–15; from Middle French or directly from Latin elegīa, from Greek elegeîa “elegiac poem or inscription,” originally plural of elegeîon “a distich consisting of an hexameter and a penameter,” equivalent to éleg(os) “song, melody,” later “a lament” + -eios adjective suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of elegy¹

C16: via French and Latin from Greek elegeia, from elegos lament sung to flute accompaniment

Example Sentences

Graff’s elegy for America leads to a core question about moral accountability and complicity: When you look in the mirror each morning, who do you see?

From Salon

Like the letter itself, the score is part valentine, part elegy—and John put his heart into it.

From Los Angeles Times

Jess Walter’s searing and sublime eighth novel, “So Far Gone,” is a wistful elegy — some might say a eulogy — to a kinder, gentler time.

From Los Angeles Times

It was etched with the elegy “True to His Spirit” in Greek.

From Los Angeles Times

As I wrote in an elegy for my country, we got here because people don’t read history books anymore, which led to collective amnesia about reality.

From Salon