dirge means A mournful poem or piece of music composed or performed as a memorial to a deceased person. It carries an Arena rating of 1828, earned across 55 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, dirge ranks #911 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #940 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #1,122 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #1,562 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words.
dirge is pronounced /dɜːdʒ/.
Why “dirge” is a great word
DIRGE — [Noun] A mournful song, poem, or piece of music composed or performed as a memorial to a deceased person. From Middle English 'dirige', from the Latin imperative 'dirige' ("steer, direct"), the first word of the antiphon 'Dirige, Domine, deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam' ("Direct, O Lord, my God, my way in thy sight") from the Office of the Dead. Unlike an "elegy," which is a formal, meditative lament intended for the page, or a "lament," which can be a raw and spontaneous cry of grief, a dirge is a specific, composed tolling for the funeral rite. It is the slow, measured tread of pallbearers’ feet; the low, collective murmur of a grieving procession; the hollow ache of a bell heard across wet graves—the structured sound we give to steer the dead toward the ultimate silence.
Etymology
From Middle English dirige, from Latin dirige (“steer, direct”), from the beginning of the first antiphon in matins for the dead, Dirige, Domine, deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam. Doublet of dirige.
noun
- A mournful poem or piece of music composed or performed as a memorial to a deceased person.
- A song or piece of music that is considered too slow, bland or boring.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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