Word of the Day

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

aubade

\oh-BAHD\ , noun;

A song or poem greeting the dawn; also, a composition suggestive of morning.

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Quotes:

He was usually still awake when the birds began to warble their aubade.

-- Christopher Buckley, "What was Robert Benchley?", National Review, June 16, 1997

And there he lingered till the crowing cock...
Sang his aubade with lusty voice and clear.

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Emma and Eginhard

Origin:

Aubade comes from the French, from aube, dawn + the noun suffix -ade: aube ultimately derives from Latin albus, white, pale, as in "alba lux," the "pale light" of dawn.