Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A dirge; a lamentation for the dead. The custom of singing dirges at funerals was formerly prevalent in Scotland and Ireland, especially in the Highlands of Scotland.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun See
coranach .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun historical (
Scotland ,Ireland )dirge ,lamentation
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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This is the Scottish Lowland "coronach," characteristic and expressive as the wailing of the pipes to the Gael or the keening of women among the wild Eirionach.
Bog-Myrtle and Peat Tales Chiefly of Galloway Gathered from the Years 1889 to 1895 1887
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Through.] [Footnote 6: A coronach is a funeral song or lamentation, from the
The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson Tennyson 1850
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Two or three women sate under the gallows, who seemed to be mourning, and singing the coronach of the deceased in a low voice.
A Legend of Montrose 2008
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If she permitted her eye to glance farther into futurity, it was but to anticipate that she must be for many a day cold in the grave, with the coronach of her tribe cried duly over her, before her fair-haired Hamish could, according to her calculation, die with his hand on the basket-hilt of the red claymore.
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“Naihah” more generally “Naddábah” Lat. præfica or carina, a hired mourner, the Irish “Keener” at the conclamatio or coronach, where the Hullabaloo, Hulululu or
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The instant the distant wail of the coronach was heard proceeding from the attendants on the funeral barge, all the subordinate sounds of lamentation were hushed at once, as the raven ceases to croak and the hawk to whistle whenever the scream of the eagle is heard.
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She was roused from her stupor at length by female voices, which cried the coronach, or lament for the dead, with clapping of hands and loud exclamations; while the melancholy note of a lament, appropriate to the clan Cameron, played on the bagpipe, was heard from time to time.
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The coronach was again, and for the last time, shrieked as the body was carried into the interior of the church, where only the nearest relatives of the deceased and the most distinguished of the leaders of the clan were permitted to enter.
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There shall never be coronach cried, or dirge played, for thee or thy bloody wolf-burd.
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Farewell to you for a while, and if you will go to the top of the Tom an Lonach behind the house, you will see a gallant sight, and hear such a coronach as will reach the top of Ben
chained_bear commented on the word coronach
"Mrs. Gwilty was, she explained, showing her niece the way of a proper coronach.
'And a fine job of work you will make of it between you, I am sure," Jamie said politely.
Mrs. Gwilty sniffed, and gave her niece a disparaging look.
'Mmphm,' she said. 'A voice like a bat farting, but she is the only woman left of my family, and I shall not live forever.'"
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 345
January 31, 2010
reesetee commented on the word coronach
Haha!
January 31, 2010
qms commented on the word coronach
New fashion in grief hearkens back
To mournful cries our tongues now lack.
Our keening falls mute
So pipes substitute
To lament our loss in shrill coronach.
May 31, 2015
stuartmathergibson commented on the word coronach
coronach
a dirge, song of lamentation; Scottish (professional mourner)
February 25, 2022