Coronach

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /kɒɹənək/

Definitions

1. A mournful musical or poetic form that reflects grief and loss following an individual's death
2. A type of lament or elegy that expresses sorrow and tribute after someone has died
3. A sorrowful composition, often musical or poetic, created to honor and mourn the deceased

Etymology: Coronach is a Scottish word for a funeral lament, sung over the dead, and it arrived in English from Scottish Gaelic "corranach" and Irish "corānach". The Gaelic word belongs to a tradition of keening at funerals, in which mourners voiced their grief in sung or wailing form rather than in spoken prayer. English speakers took it up mainly as a Scottish literary term, so it survives chiefly in writing about the Highlands and Lowlands. The word's modern life owes much to Sir Walter Scott, whose novels and poems drew heavily on Scottish customs and vocabulary and helped carry such terms into wider English. Its pairing of Gaelic sound with a solemn, mournful meaning is a large part of why writers still reach for it when they want a sense of old Scottish grief.

Synonyms: lament, dirge