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Webster's New World College Dictionary » elegiacal
elegiacal
Variant of elegiac
elegiac
definition
el·egi·ac (el ē′jē ak′, i lē′-; el′ə jī′ak′, -ək)
adjective
- Gr. & Latin Prosody of or composed in dactylic-hexameter couplets, the second line (sometimes called a pentameter) having only an accented syllable in the third and sixth feet: the form was used for elegies and various other lyric poems
- of, like, or fit for an elegy
- sad; mournful; plaintive
Also elegiacal el′·egi′a·cal (el′ə jī′ə kəl)
Etymology: LL elegiacus < Gr elegeiakos < elegeia: see elegy
noun
- an elegiac couplet
- a series of such couplets; poem or poems written in such couplets
Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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