Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun, plural el·e·gies.
- a mournful, melancholy, or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.
- a poem written in elegiac meter.
- a sad or mournful musical composition.
noun plural -gies
- a mournful or plaintive poem or song, esp a lament for the dead
- poetry or a poem written in elegiac couplets or stanzas
1510s, from Middle French elegie, from Latin elegia, from Greek elegeia ode “an elegaic song,” from elegeia, fem. of elegeios “elegaic,” from elegos “poem or song of lament,” perhaps from a Phrygian word.
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.)