# nenia
## English
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin nēnia.

### Noun

nenia (plural nenias)
* (Ancient Rome) A funeral song; an elegy.
** 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Honest Objects of Love”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:Nam vinci in amore turpissimum putant, not only living, but when their friends are dead, with tombs and monuments, nenias, epitaphs elegies, inscriptions, pyramids, obelisks, statues, images, pictures, histories, poems, annals, feasts, anniversaries, many ages after (as Plato's scholars did) they will parentare still, omit no good office that may tend to the preservation of their names, honours, and eternal memory.
** 1837, Thomas Carlyle, “Avignon”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume II (The Constitution), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book V (Parliament First):The corpse of L’Escuyer, stretched on a bier, the ghastly head girt with laurel, is borne through the streets; with many-voiced unmelodious Nenia; funeral-wail still deeper than it is loud!
** 1901, M. P. Shiel, The Purple Cloud‎:And as I nodded, with forehead propped on my left hand, and the packet of pemmican cakes in my right, there was in my head, somehow, an old street-song of my childhood: and I groaned it sleepily, like coronachs and drear funereal nenias, dirging; and the packet beat time in my right hand, falling and raising, falling heavily and rising, in time.

#### Translations
### References

* “nenia”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* -anine, Annie, inane

## Esperanto
### Etymology

From neni- (negative correlative prefix) +‎ -a (correlative suffix of kind).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [neˈnia]
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -ia
* Hyphenation: ne‧ni‧a

### Determiner

nenia (accusative singular nenian, plural neniaj, accusative plural neniajn)
* no kind of

### See also
## Italian
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin nēnia.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈnɛ.nja/

### Noun

nenia f (plural nenie)
* dirge
* wail

### Further reading

* nenia in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

### Anagrams

* Ienna, inane

## Latin
### Alternative forms

* naenia

### Etymology

Perhaps from Ancient Greek νηνία (nēnía).

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈneː.ni.a/, [ˈneːniä]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈne.ni.a/, [ˈnɛːniä]

### Noun

nēnia f (genitive nēniae); first declension
* a funeral song, dirge
* a spell, incantation, enchantment
    Synonyms: carmen, cantiō, cantus, incantāmentum
* a song of little consequence, ditty, tune, lullaby
    Synonyms: lallus, lallum
* (in the plural) talk of little consequence, trifles, nonsense
    Synonyms: nūgae, nihil
** 1st c. AD, Phaedrus, Poeta :POĒTA / Ioculāre tibi vidētur et sānē levī, / Dum nihil habēmus maius, calamō lūdimus, / Sed dīligenter intuēre hās nēniās / Quantam sub titulīs ūtilitātem reperiēs!Poet. / It may seem to you that it's just jests and trifles when I don't have anything better to do and play with the pen: but look at these trifles diligently; you will find so much usefulness under this pretext!
* (Late Latin, Medieval Latin) a complaint, criticism
    Synonyms: querēla, cēnsūra

#### Declension

First-declension noun.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | nēnia | nēniae |
| Genitive | nēniae | nēniārum |
| Dative | nēniae | nēniīs |
| Accusative | nēniam | nēniās |
| Ablative | nēniā | nēniīs |
| Vocative | nēnia | nēniae |

#### Descendants

* → English: nenia
* → French: nénie
* → German: Nänie
* → Italian: nenia
* → Portuguese: nénia, nênia (Brazil)
* → Romanian: nenie
* → Spanish: nenia

### References

* “nenia”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “nenia”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* nenia in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* “nenia”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
* “nenia”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin