threnody

[thren-uh-dee]

noun

plural

threnodies 

1. a poem, speech, or song of lamentation, especially for the dead; dirge; funeral song.

threnody

/ θrɪˈnəʊdɪəl, ˈθrɛnədɪst, ˈθrɛn-, ˈθriː-, θrɪˈnɒdɪk, ˈθriː-, ˈθriːnəʊd, ˈθrɛnədɪ /

noun

1. an ode, song, or speech of lamentation, esp for the dead

Other Word Forms

• threnodist noun
• threnodial adjective
• threnodic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of threnody¹

1615–25; < Greek thrēnōidía, equivalent to thrên ( os ) dirge + -ōid ( ḗ ) song ( ode ) + -ia -y ³

Word History and Origins

Origin of threnody¹

C17: from Greek thrēnōidia, from thrēnos dirge + ōidē song

Example Sentences

On “From Ukraine, For Ukraine,” a darkly brilliant new omnibus album by the cutting-edge Kyiv label Standard Deviation, grief and rage melt into impudently beautiful contemporary threnodies.

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When you’re expecting extinction, it makes sense to record the threnody in advance.

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Of course, “the unspeakable horror of the literary life” — to borrow Mr. Earbrass’s phrase from Edward Gorey’s “The Unstrung Harp” — is a familiar threnody in the writing biz.

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Mr. Greenwood’s own score for the movie “There Will Be Blood,” for example, features his “Popcorn Superhet Receiver,” a work directly inspired by the Hiroshima threnody.

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By fusing gay rage and sorrow with familiar musical gestures—Straussian orchestral explosions, Samuel Barber-like threnodies for strings—it ennobled a portion of the population for which many orchestra subscribers might have felt disgust.

Read more on The New Yorker