elegiacaladj.n.

c1487 J. Skelton tr. Diodorus Siculus Bibliotheca Historica v. 388 Elegiacal exclamacions of lamentable & pietyuous auenture [no corresponding sentence in the Latin original].

1594 T. Nashe Vnfortunate Traveller sig. K4^v Let not your sorow die, you that haue read the proeme and narration of this elegiacal history.

1631 J. Weever Anc. Funerall Monuments 769 An Elegiacall or sorrowfull Epitaph.

1640 T. Carew Poems 126 An Elegiacall Letter upon the death of the King of Sweden.

1702 W. Nicolson Sc. Hist. Libr. iii. 143 We have several good Manuscript Copies of..his [sc. Aelred's] Elegiacal History of the same good Prince's death.

1784 W. Hayley Mausoleum iii. i, in Plays of Three Acts 419 Peace, woman!—I care not for idle derision, I have had a superb elegiacal vision.

1846 W. S. Landor Citation & Exam. Shakespere in Wks. II. 294 Study this higher elegiacal strain.

1878 R. L. Stevenson in Cornhill Mag. Apr. 436 Mim-mouthed friends and relations hold up their hands in quite a little elegiacal synod about his path.

1948 Notes 5 567/2 Elegiacal tributes to Rosenfeld's sweetness of character.

1979 Washington Post 7 Sept. b1/2 The sprawled hulks and leaf-strewn streets left in the wake of Tropical Storm David occasioned moments of elegiacal reflection.

2003 Legacy 20 57/1 These obituaries and elegiacal biographies of African women in America.

1542 N. Udall tr. Erasmus Apophthegmes Pref. sig. ✭v (note) Theognis a Greke poete y^t wryteth in Elegeiacal verses suche morall preceptes of virtue as been in y^e litle treatise.

1546 T. Langley tr. P. Vergil Abridgem. Notable Worke i. viii. f. xvii Of Meters there bee..that hath their name..of the nomber of the fete, as Exameter and Pentameter which is also called Elegiacal [L. elegiaca].

1582 R. Stanyhurst in tr. Virgil First Foure Bookes Æneis 86 The heroical and thee elegiacal enterlaced one with the oother.

1697 J. Potter Archæologiæ Græcæ I. ii. vi. 224 There was a Statue of Iupiter..on which were engraven certain Elegiacal verses, compos'd on purpose to terrifie Men from invoking that God to witness an Untruth.

1911 Encycl. Brit. XXVII. 1043/2 The elegiacal couplet was originally erotic, and was adapted to mournful themes by Simonides.

1784 R. Bage Barham Downs I. 59 I will point thee out a distinction. I love—naturally; thou—elegiacally, after the manner of Tibullus.

1863 Harper's New Monthly Mag. June 107/2 The footlights were down, and the bass-viol wailing elegiacally.

1951 I. Howe Sherwood Anderson 108 Anderson's prose is neither ‘natural’ nor primitive; it is rather a hushed bardic chant, low-toned and elegiacally awkward.

2004 Daily Tel. 13 May 24/2 The pleasures of unsupervised reflection have been elegiacally evoked over the past week.