threnody
noun
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Threnody encompasses all genres. There are great threnodies in prose (such as the lines from Charles Dickens’ Bleak House upon the death of Little Jo: "Dead, your Majesty. Dead, my lords and gentlemen. Dead…."), in poetry (as in W. H. Auden’s "Funeral Blues": "The stars are not wanted now: put out every one, / Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun…."), and in music (Giovanni Pergolesi’s "Stabat Mater," for one). Threnody, which we borrowed from the Greek word thrēnōidia (from thrēnos, the word for "dirge"), has survived in English since the early 1600s. Melody, tragedy, and comedy are related to threnody through the Greek root that forms their ending-aeidein, which means "to sing."
Examples of threnody in a Sentence
Sara Wheeler, WSJ, 25 Oct. 2018
Most critics acknowledged the score’s beautiful moments, especially Cleopatra’s death scene, in which the character’s plaintive lyrical lines are capped by a chilling choral threnody.
—Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, 22 Dec. 2017
Needless to say, Murray’s threnody for Europe is as fundamentally incoherent as its late-19th-century originals.
—Pankaj Mishra, New York Times, 14 Sep. 2017
Threnody in X (FTF), Soda Pop (FTF), Corn Hives (FTF), Facts (FTF),
—Sophie Brown, WIRED, 9 Aug. 2011
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Cite this Entry
“Threnody.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/threnody. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
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