/el"i jee/ , n. , pl. elegies .
1. a mournful, melancholy, or plaintive poem, esp. a funeral song or a lament for the dead.
2. a poem written in elegiac meter.
3. a sad or mournful musical composition.
[ 1505-15; ( elegia elegeía, orig. neut. pl. of ELEGEÎOS elegiac, equiv. to éleg ( os ) a lament + -eios adj. suffix ]