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DIRID

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

dirge

–noun

1.	a funeral song or tune, or one expressing mourning in commemoration of the dead.

2.	any composition resembling such a song or tune in character, as a poem of lament for the dead or solemn, mournful music: Tennyson's dirge for the Duke of Wellington.

3.	a mournful sound resembling a dirge: The autumn wind sang the dirge of summer.

4.	Ecclesiastical. the office of the dead, or the funeral service as sung.

[Origin: 1175–1225; ME dir(i)ge < L: direct, syncopated var. of dīrige (impv. of dīrigere), first word of the antiphon sung in the Latin office of the dead (Psalm V, 8)

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Dirge

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

dirge Audio Help (dûrj) Pronunciation Key
n.

Music
1. A funeral hymn or lament.
2. A slow, mournful musical composition.
A mournful or elegiac poem or other literary work.
Roman Catholic Church The Office of the Dead.

[Middle English, an antiphon at Matins in the Office of the Dead, from Medieval Latin dīrige Domine, direct, O Lord (the opening words of the antiphon), imperative of dīrigere, to direct; see direct.]

dirge'ful adj.

Word History: The history of the word dirge illustrates how a word with neutral connotations, such as direct, can become emotionally charged because of a specialized use. The Latin word dīrige is a form of the verb dīrigere, "to direct, guide," that is used in uttering commands. In the Office of the Dead dīrige is the first word in the opening of the antiphon for the first nocturn of Matins: "Dirige, Domine, Deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam," "Direct, O Lord, my God, my way in thy sight." The part of the Office of the Dead that begins with this antiphon was named Dīrige in Ecclesiastical Latin. This word with this meaning was borrowed into English as dirige, first recorded in a work possibly written before 1200. Dirige was then extended to refer to the chanting or reading of the Office of the Dead as part of a funeral or memorial service. In Middle English the word was shortened to dirge, although it was pronounced as two syllables. After the Middle Ages the word took on its more general senses of "a funeral hymn or lament" and "a mournful poem or musical composition," and developed its one-syllable pronunciation.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
dirge

c.1225, from L. dirige "direct!" imperative of dirigere "to direct," probably from antiphon Dirige, Domine, Deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam, "Direct, O Lord, my God, my way in thy sight," from Psalm v:9, which opened the Matins service in the Office of the Dead. Transferred sense of "any funeral song" is from 1500.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

dirge
noun
a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Dirge

Di*rect"\, a. [L. directus, p. p. of dirigere to direct: cf. F. direct. See Dress, and cf. Dirge.]

1. Straight; not crooked, oblique, or circuitous; leading by the short or shortest way to a point or end; as, a direct line; direct means.

What is direct to, what slides by, the question. --Locke.

2. Straightforward; not of crooked ways, or swerving from truth and openness; sincere; outspoken.

Be even and direct with me. --Shak.

3. Immediate; express; plain; unambiguous.

He nowhere, that I know, says it in direct words. --Locke.

A direct and avowed interference with elections. --Hallam.

4. In the line of descent; not collateral; as, a descendant in the direct line.

5. (Astron.) In the direction of the general planetary motion, or from west to east; in the order of the signs; not retrograde; -- said of the motion of a celestial body.

Direct action. (Mach.) See Direct-acting.

Direct discourse (Gram.), the language of any one quoted without change in its form; as, he said "I can not come;" -- correlative to indirect discourse, in which there is change of form; as, he said that he could not come. They are often called respectively by their Latin names, oratio directa, and oratio obliqua.

Direct evidence (Law), evidence which is positive or not inferential; -- opposed to circumstantial, or indirect, evidence. -- This distinction, however, is merely formal, since there is no direct evidence that is not circumstantial, or dependent on circumstances for its credibility. --Wharton.

Direct examination (Law), the first examination of a witness in the orderly course, upon the merits. --Abbott.

Direct fire (Mil.), fire, the direction of which is perpendicular to the line of troops or to the parapet aimed at.

Direct process (Metal.), one which yields metal in working condition by a single process from the ore. --Knight.

Direct tax, a tax assessed directly on lands, etc., and polls, distinguished from taxes on merchandise, or customs, and from excise.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Dirge

Dirge\, n. [Contraction of Lat. dirige, direct thou (imperative of dirigere), the first word of a funeral hymn (Lat. transl. of Psalm v. 8) beginning, "Dirige, Domine, in conspectu tuo vitam meam." See Direct, a., and cf. Dirige.] A piece of music of a mournful character, to accompany funeral rites; a funeral hymn.

The raven croaked, and hollow shrieks of owls Sung dirges at her funeral. --Ford.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Dirge

Dir"i*ge\, n. [L. See Dirge.] A service for the dead, in the Roman Catholic Church, being the first antiphon of Matins for the dead, of which Dirige is the first word; a dirge.

Evensongs and placebo and dirige. --Wyclif.

Resort, I pray you, unto my sepulture To sing my dirige with great devotion. --Lamentation of Mary Magdalene.

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