词组 | elegy, eulogy |
释义 | elegy, eulogy Strictly speaking, an elegy (from the Greek elegos, "song of mourning") is a sorrowful or melancholy song or poem, and a eulogy (from the Greek eulogia, "praise") is a formal statement or oration expressing praise. A funeral oration is called a eulogy because it typically praises the accomplishments and character of the person who has died. It also, of course, expresses sorrow, and many people no doubt associate the word eulogy more strongly with sorrow than with praise. Such associations might be expected to cause some tendency to confuse elegy and eulogy, but our evidence gives little indication that such confusion has occurred. Eulogy is never used to mean "a sorrowful song or poem." Nor is elegy used to mean "a speech of praise." Elegy is, however, sometimes used in figurative contexts to mean in essence "a funeral oration": • He concludes his elegy for the literature of the past by remarking that those writers "had class in both senses of the word...." —Michèle Murray, National Observer, 16 June 1973 • They write like undertakers: an elegy on every page —David Rains Wallace, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 22 July 1984 If you use elegy in this way, you may find yourself being corrected. |
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