elegi Latin · revision 32800

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1st century BC|origins=grc ἔλεγος}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈɛ.ɫɛ.ɡiː]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈɛː.le.d͡ʒi]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''elegī''' ''m pl'' (genitive elegōrum); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|grc|ἔλεγος|tr=élegos]], used in the plural as [[m|grc|ἔλεγοι|tr=élegoi]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)^(Saalfeld 1874) Köbler, after Frisk, takes the Greek word for a lament to be probably of Asia Minor origin.^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Lewis & Short and the TLL quote it first from the poets of the 1st century BC, Tibullus, Propertius and Horace;^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL) Horace writes ''neu miserābilēs decantēs elegōs'', “and do not keep chanting piteous elegies”.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It names verses in elegiac couplets, a hexameter joined to a pentameter, above all love poems and laments.^(OLD 2012)^(TLL) Horace says scholars still argue over who first put out short elegies.^(TLL) Ovid bids his unwarlike elegies farewell and asks whether they can bear so great a subject, which needs the heroic foot;^(TLL) Martial too sets them against epic.^(TLL) Terentianus Maurus says the name was given because this ending suits sad measures, and a scholiast on Horace explains them as verses made about misery.^(TLL) Sidonius distinguishes ''elegi echoici'' from ''elegi recurrentes''.^(Georges 1913) The TLL notes that the singular also occurs.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1st century BC – Tibullus, Propertius and Horace.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL)

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid bids farewell to his elegies.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 98–115 AD – Tacitus in the ''Dialogus''.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''(plural)'' [[m|en|elegiac]] verses, an [[m|en|elegy]], especially love poetry or lament.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)^(TLL)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}