哀歌——为逝者而作的歌或诗；一种把恸哭谱成曲式的文体。 A song of lament for the dead — grief given a musical form.
A song of lament for the dead — grief given a musical form. 哀歌——为逝者而作的歌或诗；一种把恸哭谱成曲式的文体。
词源etymology
希腊语 thrēnos（恸哭、哀号）＋ ōidē（歌）——「哭之歌」。 后一半来自 aeidein（唱），是个高产的词尾：melody、tragedy、comedy 都是它的兄弟—— 旋律、悲剧、喜剧、哀歌，希腊人把这些都归在「唱」的门下。
Greek thrēnos (wailing, lament) + ōidē (song) — “the wept song.” The second half, from aeidein (to sing), is a prolific suffix: melody, tragedy and comedy are its siblings — the Greeks filed them all under singing.
背景the story
1634 年进入英语（OED 首证），此后一直做着文体术语的本分：给挽诗、安魂曲、 悼亡乐章当学名。二十世纪它接了最重的一单：彭德雷茨基 1961 年的弦乐名作 《献给广岛受难者的哀歌》（Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima）—— 五十二件弦乐器的嘶鸣，把这个古典文体词钉进了现代音乐史。
它比 elegy（挽歌诗）更靠近声音：elegy 可以默读，threnody 天生要出声。
In English since 1634 (OED), it has kept to its trade as a genre term — the technical name for laments, requiems, memorial movements. The twentieth century handed it its heaviest commission: Penderecki’s 1961 Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, fifty-two strings keening, which nailed the classical genre-word into modern music history.
It stands closer to sound than elegy does: an elegy can be read silently; a threnody is born to be voiced.
中文里的邻居neighbors in chinese
这是匣里少见的有直译的词：中文的「挽歌」几乎词对词—— 汉乐府《薤露》《蒿里》本就是出殡唱的歌，陶渊明还给自己写过《拟挽歌辞》。 两个传统各自把恸哭谱成了文体。差别只剩用法：中文「挽歌」早已扩用成 「某某时代的挽歌」；threnody 更矜持，多半守在音乐与诗的题签上。
A rarity in this box: a word with a real translation. Chinese 挽歌 matches nearly morpheme for morpheme — the Han ballads 薤露 and 蒿里 were sung at funerals, and Tao Yuanming drafted his own 拟挽歌辞. Two traditions independently scored weeping into a genre. Only usage differs now: 挽歌 long ago loosened into “a threnody for an era,” while threnody stays reserved, keeping mostly to the title pages of music and poetry.
The wind in the chimney played its usual winter threnody. 自拟例句 our own example, not a quotation Half the folk canon is threnody wearing a dance tempo. 自拟例句 our own example, not a quotation 词典词（MW／OED），正式写作可用；乐评与文学批评里是术语。 写「一个时代的挽歌」这类比喻时，中文直接用「挽歌」，英文用 threnody——正好互为译文。
A dictionary word (MW/OED), safe in formal prose; a term of art in music and literary criticism. For “a threnody for an era,” Chinese says 挽歌 and English says threnody — for once, each is the other’s translation.