# Elegia or Elogium ?



## BobbieCB

If you have a brief elegy at the front of a book, a Latin inscription, would you label it "Elegia" or "Elogium" ?

Thank you for your help.


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## wandle

WR Collins Concise Dictionary gives two meanings for 'elegy':


> *elegy* /ˈɛlɪdʒɪ/ n  (* pl  -gies*)
> 
> a mournful or plaintive poem or song, esp a lament for the dead
> poetry or a poem written in elegiac couplets or stanzas


Which one do you have in mind?


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## BobbieCB

Hi wandle,
I have in mind the first -- "a mournful or plaintive poem or song..."
Thank you.


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## wandle

The Latin word is _*elegia*_. May I ask what you mean by 'label it'? Are you using the word _*elegia*_ as a title?


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## BobbieCB

Hi wandle,
I recall some books I ran into in the library, written many years ago, that had a Latin inscription on a fly leaf page near the beginning of the book. Usually the inscription was a few lines long, sometimes original, sometimes a quote from ancient Latin (like Homer or Plato). If I recall correctly, many of these inscriptions had one-word labels. I was trying to recall what the Latin label might be for an elegy.
Thank you for your help.


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## CapnPrep

Are you thinking of an epigraph? Or an ex libris?


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## BobbieCB

Yes, an epigraph! Thank you. Sometimes the epigraph had a Latin label.That's what I was trying to remember. It couldn't have just been "Epigraph," could it? Thanks.


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## bearded

> BobbieCB:
> a quote from ancient Latin (like Homer or Plato)


Actually, those are ancient Greek authors.  I feel you have not chosen your examples properly.


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