elegiac


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Related to elegiac: elegiac couplet

el·e·gi·ac

 (ĕl′ə-jī′ək, ĭ-lē′jē-ăk′)
adj.
1. Of, relating to, or involving elegy or mourning or expressing sorrow for that which is irrecoverably past: an elegiac lament for youthful ideals.
2. Of or composed in elegiac couplets.

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

el′e·gi′ac n.
el′e·gi′a·cal adj.
el′e·gi′a·cal·ly adv.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

elegiac

(ˌɛlɪˈdʒaɪək)
adj
1. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) resembling, characteristic of, relating to, or appropriate to an elegy
2. lamenting; mournful; plaintive
3. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) denoting or written in elegiac couplets or elegiac stanzas. Also (archaic): elegiacal
n
(Literary & Literary Critical Terms) (often plural) an elegiac couplet or stanza
ˌeleˈgiacally adv
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

el•e•gi•ac

(ˌɛl ɪˈdʒaɪ ək, -æk, ɪˈli dʒiˌæk)

adj. Also, el`e•gi′a•cal.
1. used in, suitable for, or resembling an elegy.
2. expressing sorrow; mournful.
3. (in classical prosody) noting a distich, the first line of which is a dactylic hexameter and the second a pentameter.
n.
4. an elegiac verse.
5. poetry in such verses.
[1575–85; (< Middle French) < Latin < Greek]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

elegiac

- Can mean "melancholy, mournful."
See also related terms for melancholy.
Farlex Trivia Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Adj.1.elegiac - resembling or characteristic of or appropriate to an elegy; "an elegiac poem on a friend's death"
2.elegiac - expressing sorrow often for something past; "an elegiac lament for youthful ideals"
sorrowful - experiencing or marked by or expressing sorrow especially that associated with irreparable loss; "sorrowful widows"; "a sorrowful tale of death and despair"; "sorrowful news"; "even in laughter the heart is sorrowful"- Proverbs 14:13
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

elegiac

adjective (Literary) lamenting, sad, melancholy, nostalgic, mournful, plaintive, melancholic, sorrowful, funereal, valedictory, keening, dirgeful, threnodial, threnodic The music has a dreamy, elegiac quality.
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002
Translations

elegiac

[ˌelɪˈdʒaɪək] ADJelegíaco
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

elegiac

[ˌɛlɪˈdʒaɪək] adj (literary) [quality, mood] → élégiaque
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

elegiac

adjelegisch
n usu pl (Liter) → elegischer Vers, Vers mim elegischen Versmaß
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

elegiac

[ˌɛlɪˈdʒaɪək] adj (liter) → elegiaco/a
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995
References in classic literature ?
For there is no common term we could apply to the mimes of Sophron and Xenarchus and the Socratic dialogues on the one hand; and, on the other, to poetic imitations in iambic, elegiac, or any similar metre.
I had always admired the genius of Glaucon and Adeimantus, but on hearing these words I was quite delighted, and said: Sons of an illustrious father, that was not a bad beginning of the Elegiac verses which the admirer of Glaucon made in honour of you after you had distinguished yourselves at the battle of Megara:--
He still talked vaguely of the things he was going to do in the future, but with less conviction; and he was conscious that his friends no longer believed in him: when he had drank two or three glasses of whiskey he was inclined to be elegiac.
The poetry of the sun has something of the epic in it; that of fog and mist is elegiac and religious.
"Spare us your elegiac tones," said the Parrot giggling.
Indeed, he bore some grudge against the family and friends of Ardshiel, and before he was drunk he read me a lampoon, in very good Latin, but with a very ill meaning, which he had made in elegiac verses upon a person of that house.
There remain also a few pagan lyric poems, which are all not only somber like 'Beowulf' but distinctly elegiac, that is pensively melancholy.
He then proceeded to patch his tags together with the help of his Gradus, producing an incongruous and feeble result of eight elegiac lines, the minimum quantity for his form, and finishing up with two highly moral lines extra, making ten in all, which he cribbed entire from one of his books, beginning "O genus humanum," and which he himself must have used a dozen times before, whenever an unfortunate or wicked hero, of whatever nation or language under the sun, was the subject.
Avienus, also a contemporary of Ausonius, put some of these fables into Latin elegiacs, which are given by Nevelet (in a book we shall refer to hereafter), and are occasionally incorporated with the editions of Phaedrus.
Set in and around the titular coastal community, Manchester By the Sea is an elegiac drama, which eloquently explores universal themes of grief, guilt and sexual awakening through the eyes of a 40-year-old handyman.
Set in and around the titular coastal community, Manchester the Sea is an elegiac drama, which eloquently explores universal themes of grief, guilt and sexual awakening through the eyes of a