Elegiac definitions

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

ELE'GIAC, a. [Low L. elegiacus. See Elegy.] Belonging to elegy; plaintive; expressing sorrow or lamentation; as an elegiac lay; elegiac strains.
1. Used in elegies. Pentameter verse is elegiac.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: resembling or characteristic of or appropriate to an elegy; "an elegiac poem on a friend's death"
2: expressing sorrow often for something past; "an elegiac lament for youthful ideals"

Merriam Webster's

also elegiacal adjective Etymology: Late Latin elegiacus, from Greek elegeiakos, from elegeion Date: 1542 1. a. of, relating to, or consisting of two dactylic hexameter lines the second of which lacks the arsis in the third and sixth feet b. (1) written in or consisting of elegiac couplets (2) noted for having written poetry in such couplets c. of or relating to the period in Greece about the seventh century B.C. when poetry written in such couplets flourished 2. of, relating to, or comprising elegy or an elegy; especially expressing sorrow often for something now past <an elegiac lament for departed youth> • elegiac noun • elegiacally adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. 1 (of a metre) used for elegies. 2 mournful. --n. (in pl.) verses in an elegiac metre. Phrases and idioms: elegiac couplet a pair of lines consisting of a dactylic hexameter and a pentameter, esp. in Greek and Latin verse. Derivatives: elegiacally adv. Etymology: F élégiaque or f. LL elegiacus f. Gk elegeiakos: see ELEGY

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Elegiac E*le"gi*ac (?; 277), a. [L. elegiacus, Gr. ?: cf. F. ['e]l['e]giaque. See Elegy.] 1. Belonging to elegy, or written in elegiacs; plaintive; expressing sorrow or lamentation; as, an elegiac lay; elegiac strains. Elegiac griefs, and songs of love. --Mrs. Browning. 2. Used in elegies; as, elegiac verse; the elegiac distich or couplet, consisting of a dactylic hexameter and pentameter.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Elegiac E*le"gi*ac, n. Elegiac verse.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Something that is elegiac expresses or shows sadness. (LITERARY) The music has a dreamy, elegiac quality. ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Mournful, plaintive, sorrowful, dirgelike.

Moby Thesaurus

Alcaic, Anacreontic, Castalian, Homeric, Hudibrastic, Pierian, Pindaric, Theocritean, bardic, bucolic, didactic, dirgelike, dithyrambic, dramatic, eclogic, epic, heroic, idyllic, knell-like, mock-heroic, narrative, pastoral, poetic, poetico-mystical, poetico-mythological, poetico-philosophic, poetlike, rhapsodic, runic, sapphic, skaldic, threnodic