elegiac

From Middle French élégiaque.

• (Canada, General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɛləˈdʒaɪæk/, /ˌɛləˈdʒaɪək/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌɛlɨˈdʒʌɪək/
• Rhymes: -aɪæk
• Rhymes: -aɪək

elegiac (comparative more elegiac, superlative most elegiac)

1. Of, or relating to an elegy.

   the elegiac distich or couplet, consisting of a dactylic hexameter and pentameter

2. Expressing sorrow or mourning.
   • Elizabeth Browning

     Elegiac griefs, and songs of love.

• 1808, Sir Walter Scott, Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field, "Canto the Third: Introduction":

  Hast thou no elegiac verse

  For Brunswick's venerable hearse?

elegiac (plural elegiacs)

1. A poem composed in the couplet style of classical elegies: a line of dactylic hexameter followed by a line of dactylic pentameter
   • 1748, John Upton, Critical Observations on Shakespeare‎, 2nd ed. edition, page 385:

     His saphics are worse, if possible, than his elegiacs

From French élégiaque.

elegiac m or n (feminine singular elegiacă, masculine plural elegiaci, feminine and neuter plural elegiace)

1. elegiac