Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A farewell or final appearance, action, or work.
- noun The beautiful legendary song sung only once by a swan in its lifetime, as it is dying.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun idiomatic A
final performance oraccomplishment , especially one beforeretirement .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a final performance or effort (especially before retirement)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[From the belief that the swan sings as it dies.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
A calque of German Schwanenlied(from Schwan + Lied) or Schwanengesang; from the belief that the mute swan sings before dying.
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Examples
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treeseed commented on the word swan song
The phrase "Swan song" is a reference to an ancient belief that the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) is completely mute during its lifetime, except for singing a single, heartbreakingly beautiful song just before it dies.
It has been known since antiquity that this belief is false. In A.D. 77. Pliny the Elder refuted it in Natural History (book 10, chapter xxxii: olorum morte narratur flebilis cantus, falso, ut arbitror, aliquot experimentis, "observation shows that the story that the dying swan sings is false").
By extension, swan song has become an idiom referring to a final theatrical or dramatic appearance, or any final work or accomplishment.
_Wikipedia
February 2, 2008
gangerh commented on the word swan song
Swans sing before they die - 'twere no bad thing
Should certain persons die before they sing.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
March 13, 2008
oroboros commented on the word swan song
Trumpeter's tune?
September 25, 2009