Etymology From Middle French élégiaque, from Latin elegīacus, from Ancient Greek ἐλεγειακός (elegeiakós).
1
Of or relating to an elegy.
the elegiac distich or couplet, consisting of a dactylic hexameter and pentameter
2
Expressing sorrow or mourning.
Hast thou no elegiac verse / For Brunswick's venerable hearse, / What! not a line, a tear, a sigh, / When valour bleeds for liberty?1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Introduction to Canto Third: To William Erskine, Esq.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC, stanza III, page 119:
And elegiac griefs, and songs of love,1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “First Book”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC, page 36: