Word of the Day:

September 21, 2026

elegiac

adjective el-uh-JYE-ak

What it Means

Elegiac means “of, relating to, or comprising an elegy," an elegy being a sorrowful poem or song, and especially one that expresses sorrow for someone who is dead. Elegiac often describes a poem, song, piece of writing, etc. that mourns something now past.

// The elegiac tone of the singer’s first album always leaves me in tears.

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Elegiac in Context

“[Jacqueline] Harpman was writing in a different era, but the elegiac loneliness of her fiction anticipates our own solitary and screen-bound present. Is there anyone out there? her book seems to ask. How do I find you?” — Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2026

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Did You Know?

As a wise man once sang, “sad songs say so much.” Just how much they say has never been definitively quantified, but it is notable that English has the perfect adjective, elegiac, to describe things that are sorrowful or nostalgic in ways that suggest poetic and musical tearjerkers. Elegiac was borrowed into English in the 15th century from the Late Latin adjective elagiacus, which in turn comes from the Greek word elegeiakos. Elegeiakos traces back to the Greek word for “elegiac couplet,” which was elegeion. It is no surprise, then, that the earliest meaning of elegiac referred to such poetic couplets. These days, of course, the word is also used to describe anything sorrowful or nostalgic. As you may have guessed, another descendant of elegeion in English is elegy, which in its oldest sense refers to a poem in elegiac couplets, and now can also refer to a somewhat broader range of laments for something or someone that is now lost.