Tragedie

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A serious play in which the protagonist meets a disastrous end ; a dreadful event that brings great suffering, death or loss
2. An earnest stage drama that concludes in ruin for its main character ; a calamitous occurrence that inflicts severe grief or harm
3. A grave theatrical work whose central figure falls to disaster ; a catastrophic happening that causes deep sorrow and destruction

Etymology: "Tragedie" is simply the older spelling of "tragedy," preserved from Middle English and Old French, where the word arrived after passing through Latin from Greek. The Greek "tragōidía" combined "trágos," meaning "male goat," with "ōidḗ," meaning "song," so the literal sense was something like "goat-song." Scholars have proposed a few explanations for the goat. One suggests a link to the goat-satyrs who figured in the theatrical plays of the Dorians; another, offered by the lexicographer Robert Beekes, proposes a goat given as a prize in the performances. Neither can be confirmed, and the exact origin remains uncertain.

Synonyms: tragedy