epithalamium
Americannoun
noun
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Etymology
Origin of epithalamium
C17: from Latin, from Greek epithalamion marriage song, from thalamos bridal chamber
Explanation
An epithalamium is a special poem written in honor of a marriage. Many epithalamiums are addressed to brides on their wedding days. The poetic form called an epithalamium started in ancient Greece as a song that was sung to the bride and groom on their wedding night by a group of children. Greek and Roman poets, including the poet Sappho, developed the epithalamium, in some cases celebrating specific marriages, and the 16th century English poet Edmund Spenser wrote Epithalamium for his own bride. The word means "bridal song," epithalamion in Greek, from epi, "upon," and thalamos, "bridal chamber."
Vocabulary lists containing epithalamium
Poetry: Genres
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Reading: Literature - Poetry - High School
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Example Sentences
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See Examples For:
In fact, there’s a special term for a wedding poem: epithalamium.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 13, 2018
"Bees' Nests", hitchhiking "for hours, pole-axed by Marzine / on sick-making bends", an ancestor among the translators of the King James Bible, Geordie slang, birthday greetings and an epithalamium: this is a collection of range and richness.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 28, 2013
Included is a series of love poems, a kind of epithalamium to his young wife, who was his student at Bennington.
From Time Magazine Archive
The tiny Prince Edward, too, who was prepared to compose an epithalamium for his royal parent's final wedlock, already gave promise of a scholarly career.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, September 16, 1914 by Seaman, Owen, Sir
Hush! he begins again with a low, liquid monotone, mounting by degrees and swelling into an infinitude of melody—the whole grove dilating, as it were, with exquisite epithalamium.
From Little Masterpieces of American Wit and Humor Volume I by Masson, Thomas L.
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
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
Next in frequency are the applications for private literary contributions,—such as epithalamia, obituaries, addresses for lovers, and the like.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 107, September, 1866 by Various
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 Pollard, Edward Bagby
She wrote, it is believed, at least nine books of odes, together with epithalamia, epigrams, elegies, and monodies.
From The Circus, and Other Essays and Fugitive Pieces by Kilmer, Joyce
What brick and mortar idylls, what romances au cinquième, what joyous epithalamiums, what gay improvident ménages, what kisses, what laughter, what tears, what lightly-spoken and lightly-broken vows those old walls could have told of!
From In the Days of My Youth by Edwards, Amelia Ann Blanford
From those votaries of Hymen who were honoured with his epithalamiums, he received a small reward.
From The Works of William Hogarth: In a Series of Engravings With Descriptions, and a Comment on Their Moral Tendency by Trusler, John
We come now to the three celebrated epithalamiums of Catullus.
From History of Roman Literature from its Earliest Period to the Augustan Age. Volume I by Dunlop, John
Thinke yee St. Augustine would have steyned his graver learning with a booke of Poetry, had he fancied its dearest end to be the vanity of love-sonnets and epithalamiums?
From The Complete Works of Richard Crashaw, Volume I (of 2) by Crashaw, Richard
On the other hand, he is entirely original in his epithalamiums, charming descriptions of the felicity of young conjugal life and the sweet blessings of pure love.
From Jewish Literature and Other Essays by Karpeles, Gustav
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
