threnody
[thren-uh-dee]
- a poem, speech, or song of lamentation, especially for the dead; dirge; funeral song.
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Origin of threnody
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for threnody
Contemporary Examples
Personally I reckon “Threnody” will give even Jordan 's page-turners a run for their money.
Historical Examples
I never hated any piece of music as I came to hate that threnody of treason.
Andersonville, Volume 3John McElroy
In Maeterlinck's mimings there is something of the spirit of Walt Whitman's threnody.
IconoclastsJames Huneker
The most famous as well as the most powerful and original of Bion's poems remaining to us is the threnody upon Adonis.
Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 4Charles Dudley Warner
From below a new sound had been added to the threnody of the hills; a new note, grumbling and roaring, insistent and strong.
The PlundererRoy Norton
The subject of the threnody is a nymph of the name of Dido, whose identity can only be vaguely conjectured.
Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral DramaWalter W. Greg
threnody
threnode (ˈθriːnəʊd, ˈθrɛn-)
- an ode, song, or speech of lamentation, esp for the dead
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Word Origin
C17: from Greek thrēnōidia, from thrēnos dirge + ōidē song
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for threnody
n.
"song of lamentation," 1630s, from Greek threnodia, from threnos "dirge, lament" + oide "ode" (see ode). Greek threnos probably is from a PIE imitative root meaning "to murmur, hum;" cf. Old English dran "drone," Gothic drunjus "sound," Greek tenthrene "a kind of wasp."
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper