Threnody

[Dr. Goodword]

• threnody •

Pronunciation: thre-nê-dee • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: A lament, dirge, or requiem for the dead, possibly a sermon, poem, song, or similar creative work.

Notes: This is an odd little word with a sad meaning, but a bit lovelier than its synonyms mentioned in the Meaning. A person who writes or delivers a threnody is a threnodist. Works that contain or resemble a threnody are threnodic. Don't forget to change the Y to IE before adding the plural suffix: threnodies.

In Play: Since threnodies are laments for the dead, they most often emerge at funerals: "The highlight of the funeral was Barry Moore's beautiful threnody to the deceased." Keep in mind that threnodies are any kind of creative work written or composed for the dead: "Rusty Horne wrote a poignant threnody for a brass choir that was played at Justin's wake."

Word History: Today's Good Word was taken from Greek threnoidia "lamentation", a compound comprising threnos "lament" + oide "song". Oide is the source of English ode and is found in several other borrowings, such as melody (tuneful song), rhapsody (sewing song), parody (secondary song), and tragedy (goat song—don't ask). Threnos comes from an earlier form, dhrein- "murmur, drone", which showed up in Germanic languages as English drone and German dröhnen "to drone". (We must thank Jamies Jones for suggesting today's Good Word and possibly forestalling a threnody for it.)

[MTC]

Stringing words like threnody, melody, rhapsody, and tragedy together is just delightful. I could rhapsodize about it.

[Perry Lassiter]

I, on the other hand, just had to ask. Doc was right. Who let the goats out?


tragedy (n.)
late 14c., "play or other serious literary work with an unhappy ending," from Old French tragedie (14c.), from Latin tragedia "a tragedy," from Greek tragodia "a dramatic poem or play in formal language and having an unhappy resolution," apparently literally "goat song," from tragos "goat" + oide "song." The connection may be via satyric drama, from which tragedy later developed, in which actors or singers were dressed in goatskins to represent satyrs. But many other theories have been made (including "singer who competes for a goat as a prize"), and even the "goat" connection is at times questioned. Meaning "any unhappy event, disaster" is from c.1500.

[LukeJavan8]

If it can be a melody, would Elton John's song at
Princess Diana's funeral be considered one?
I don't remember the name exactly, candle in the wind???

[George Kovac]

“All the Knowledge in the World” is a new book by Simon Garfield describing the history and demise of the encyclopedia. In a review of the book by Joseph Epstein, the reviewer writes that Garfield “ has produced a lively threnody to the encyclopedic impulse … . A lively threnody may seem an oxymoron, but Mr. Garfield both loves encyclopedias and bewails their demise.”