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elegy. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
elegy, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
elegy in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
elegy you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle French elegie, from Latin elegīa, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ἐλεγείᾱ (elegeíā), ellipsis of ἐλεγείᾱ ᾠδή (elegeíā ōidḗ, “an elegiac song”).
Pronunciation
Noun
elegy (plural elegies)
- A mournful or plaintive poem; a funeral song; a poem of lamentation.
- (music) A composition of mournful character.
- A classical poem written in elegiac meter
Usage notes
Because the words elegy and eulogy sound and look similar and both concern speeches or poems associated with someone's death and funeral, they are easily confused. A simple key to remembering the difference is that an elegy is chiefly about lamenting whereas a eulogy is chiefly about praising (and eu- = "good").
Synonyms
Coordinate terms
- requiem – a piece of music played at a mass for the dead
Derived terms
Translations
mournful or plaintive poem or song
- Arabic: رِثَاء m (riṯāʔ), مَرْثِيَة f (marṯiya)
- Bulgarian: елегия (bg) f (elegija)
- Catalan: elegia (ca) f
- Chinese:
- Hokkien: 哀歌 (ai-ko)
- Mandarin: 挽歌 (zh) (wǎngē) (trad. variant: 輓歌/挽歌 (zh) (wǎngē)), 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 (fi)
- French: élégie (fr) f
- Galician: elexía (gl) f
- German: Elegie (de) f
- Greek: ελεγεία (el) (elegeía)
- Ancient: ἐλεγεία (elegeía)
- Hebrew: קִנָּה (he) (kiná)
- Hungarian: elégia (hu)
- Indonesian: elegi (id)
- Irish: marbhna m
- Japanese: 哀歌 (ja) (あいか, aika)
- Korean: 만가 (ko) (man'ga)
- Ladino: endecha
- Latin: elegīa f, elegī m pl
- Macedonian: еле́гија f (elégija)
- Old English: līclēoþ n
- Old Irish: marbnad f
- Polish: elegia (pl) f
- Portuguese: elegia (pt) f
- Romanian: elegie (ro) 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
- Tagalog: elehiya
- Turkish: ağıt (tr), sagu (tr), mersiye (tr)
- Welsh: marwnad f
- Yiddish: עלעגיע f (elegye)
- Zazaki: hewal
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Further reading
Anagrams
Hungarian
Etymology
First attested in 1508. Back-formation from elegyít, elegyedik, or obsolete elegyül.[1]
Pronunciation
Noun
elegy (plural elegyek)
- (chemistry and figuratively) mixture
- Synonym: keverék
Declension
Derived terms
References
- ^ elegy in Károly Gerstner, editor, Új magyar etimológiai szótár [New Etymological Dictionary of Hungarian] (ÚESz.), Online edition (beta version), Budapest: MTA Research Institute for Linguistics / Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics, 2011–2024.
Further reading
- elegy in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
- elegy in Nóra Ittzés, editor, A magyar nyelv nagyszótára [A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published a–ez as of 2024).