epithalamion

American  

[ep-uh-thuh-lay-mee-on, -uhn] / ˌɛp ə θəˈleɪ miˌɒn, -ən /

noun

• epithalamia
  plural

1. a song or poem in honor of a bride and bridegroom.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• epithalamia
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of epithalamion

1580–90; < Greek: nuptial, noun use of neuter of epithalámios nuptial. See epi-, thalamus

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

epithalamion epithalamia

While that celebratory epithalamion, “The Whitsun Weddings,” has been voted the most popular English poem of the previous half-century, I myself would have opted for “Aubade,” Larkin’s last and most terrifying meditation on death.

From Washington Post

Other notable epithalamia, from Edmund Spenser to E. E. Cummings , are just too long and obtuse to do the trick.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 13, 2018

This genre reaches all the way back to ancient Greece, but the most famous epithalamia do not work well at modern weddings.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 13, 2018

Music was heard until a late hour, and epithalamia were again resumed with the morning light.

From Philothea A Grecian Romance by Lydia Maria Francis Child

The Shi King, a collection of Chinese poetry gathered by Confucius, an anthology of more than three hundred poems, contains some glowing epithalamia setting forth at length the unmistakable virtues of the bride.

From Oriental Women by Edward Bagby Pollard

While in no degree Shakespearian echoes, there are epithalamia and dirges of his that might properly have fallen from the lips of Posthumus in "Cymbeline."

From Ponkapog Papers by Thomas Bailey Aldrich

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