el·e·gi·ac

[el-i-jahy-uhk, -ak, ih-lee-jee-ak]
adjective Also, el·e·gi·a·cal.
1.
used in, suitable for, or resembling an elegy.
2.
expressing sorrow or lamentation: elegiac strains.
3.
Classical Prosody. noting a distich or couplet the first line of which is a dactylic hexameter and the second a pentameter, or a verse differing from the hexameter by suppression of the arsis or metrically unaccented part of the third and the sixth foot.
noun
4.
an elegiac or distich verse.
5.
a poem in such distichs or verses.
00:10
Elegiac is always a great word to know.
So is flibbertigibbet. Does it mean:
a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
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Origin:
1575–85; (< Middle French) < Latin elegīacus < Greek elegeiakós. See elegy, -ac

Related forms
el·e·gi·a·cal·ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
elegiac (ˌɛlɪˈdʒaɪək) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
—adj
1.  resembling, characteristic of, relating to, or appropriate to an elegy
2.  lamenting; mournful; plaintive
3.  denoting or written in elegiac couplets or elegiac stanzas
 
—n
4.  (often plural) an elegiac couplet or stanza
 
ele'giacally
 
—adv

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

elegiac
1580s, from L. elegiacus, from Gk. elegeiakos, from eleigeion (see elegy). Related: Elegiacally.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Example sentences
As such, it could have taken an elegiac form, and sometimes it does.
There is an elegiac note in the final point of my list.
Elegiac fiction about the moral treachery of memory.
Monte lengthens her antic choreographic phrases to create lyrical or even
  elegiac effects.
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