elegiac

English

Etymology

From Middle French élégiaque.

Pronunciation

  • (Canada, General American) IPA(key): /ˌɛləˈdʒaɪæk/, /ˌɛləˈdʒaɪək/
  • Rhymes: -aɪæk
  • Rhymes: -aɪək

Adjective

elegiac (comparative more elegiac, superlative most elegiac)

  1. Of, or relating to an elegy.
    the elegiac distich or couplet, consisting of a dactylic hexameter and pentameter
  2. Expressing sorrow or mourning.
    • Elizabeth Browning
      Elegiac griefs, and songs of love.

Quotations

  • 1808, Sir Walter Scott, Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field, "Canto the Third: Introduction":
    Hast thou no elegiac verse
    For Brunswick's venerable hearse?

Noun

elegiac (plural elegiacs)

  1. A poem composed in the couplet style of classical elegies: a line of dactylic hexameter followed by a line of dactylic pentameter
    • 1748, John Upton, Critical Observations on Shakespeare‎, 2nd ed. edition, page 385:
      His saphics are worse, if possible, than his elegiacs
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