adjective Also el·e·gi·a·cal.
- used in, suitable for, or resembling an elegy.
- expressing sorrow or lamentation: elegiac strains.
- Classical Prosody. noting a distich or couplet the first line of which is a dactylic hexameter and the second a pentameter, or a verse differing from the hexameter by suppression of the arsis or metrically unaccented part of the third and the sixth foot.
noun
- an elegiac or distich verse.
- a poem in such distichs or verses.
adjective
- resembling, characteristic of, relating to, or appropriate to an elegy
- lamenting; mournful; plaintive
- denoting or written in elegiac couplets or elegiac stanzas
noun
- (often plural) an elegiac couplet or stanza
1580s, from Middle French élégiaque, from Latin elegiacus, from Greek elegeiakos, from eleigeia (see elegy). Related: Elegiacally.