song
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /sɒŋ/
ipa: /sɔŋ/
ipa: /sɑŋ/
rhymes: -ɒŋ
Forms: form: songs
Etymology: From Middle English song, sang, from Old English sang, from Proto-West Germanic *sangu, from Proto-Germanic *sangwaz (“singing, song”), from Proto-Indo-European *sengʷʰ- (“to sing”). Cognate with Scots sang, song (“singing, song”), Saterland Frisian Song (“song”), West Frisian sang (“song”), Dutch zang (“song”), Low German sang (“song”), German Sang (“singing, song”), Swedish sång (“song”), Norwegian Bokmål sang (“song”), Norwegian Nynorsk song (“song”), Icelandic söngur (“song”), Ancient Greek ὀμφή (omphḗ, “voice, oracle”). More at sing.
Senses: examples: text: Thomas listened to his favorite song on the radio yesterday.
text: The Harpe. […] A harper with his wreſt maye tune the harpe wrong / Mys tunying of an Inſtrument ſhal hurt a true ſonge
ref: 1568, William Cornishe [i.e., William Cornysh], “In the Fleete Made by Me William Cornishe otherwise Called Nyshwhete Chapelman with the Most Famose and Noble Kyng Henry the VII. His Reygne the XIX. Yere the Moneth of July. A Treatise betwene Trouth, and Information.”, in John Skelton, edited by J[ohn] S[tow], Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate, Imprinted at London: In Fletestreate, neare vnto Saint Dunstones Churche by Thomas Marshe, →OCLC; republished as Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate to King Henry the VIIIth, London: Printed for C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, 1736, →OCLC, page 290:
text: In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road.
ref: 1852, Mrs M.A. Thompson, “The Tutor's Daughter”, in Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion, page 266:
text: He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights,[…], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A musical composition with lyrics for voice or voices, performed by singing.
glosses: Any musical composition.
examples: text: This subject for heroic song.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: The bard that first adorned our native tongue / Tuned to his British lyre this ancient song.
ref: 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: Poetical composition; poetry; verse.
examples: text: How often the enthusiast has dwelt upon the birds bursting into song, the buds bursting into flower, all nature bursting into life!—as though a state of things in which everything around us is bursting is at all pleasant.
ref: 1884, Spencer Leigh Hughes, “The Weather. A Short Study on a Great Subject.”, in Golden Hours: A Monthly Magazine for Family and General Reading, volume XVII, London: Lile and Fawcett, […], page 28, column 1:
text: Or take one that is less of an explanation and more of a song , The Spider . I knew all along what I wanted to say about a spider . I wanted to say all the good things I could . For spiders are the one order of creation that I thoroughly dislike.[…]
ref: 1942, Robert Peter Tristram Coffin, The Substance that is Poetry (Patten Foundation series), Macmillan, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 71:
glosses: The act or art of singing.
examples: text: I love hearing the song of canary birds.
text: That most ethereal of all sounds, the song of crickets.
ref: 1833, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Canterbury Pilgrims:
text: The robin alone by his soft morning song broke the silence and the solitude which reigned in the forest.
ref: 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 85:
glosses: A melodious sound made by a bird, insect, whale or other animal.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
ornithology
glosses: The distinctive sound that a male bird utters to attract a mate or to protect his territory; contrasts with call; also, similar vocalisations made by female birds.
examples: text: He bought that car for a song.
text: his [a common soldier's] pay is a song.
ref: 1810, Benjamin Silliman, A Journal of Travels in England, Holland and Scotland:
text: Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor;[…].
ref: 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0016:
glosses: A low price, especially one under the expected value; chiefly in for a song.
examples: text: And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 30:9:
glosses: An object of derision; a laughing stock.
Derived terms: action song
answer song
art song
bird song
birdsong
buay song
bush song
campfire song
car crash song
coon song
copy song
cover song
cradle song
deep song
diss song
drinking song
evensong
fight song
folk song
for a song
for a song and a dance
for a song and dance
foresong
heartsong
illustrated song
insert song
intersong
love song
microsong
midsong
minstrel song
multisong
New Song
novelty song
old song
on song
painsong
part-song
part song
patter song
plainsong
plain-song
plain song
playsong
pop song
presong
pricksong
protest song
radio song
runesong
show song
signature song
singsong
sing-song
sirensong
siren song
Siren song
siren's song
Siren's song
song and dance
song and supper room
songbird
songbook
song book
song-craft
songcraft
songer
songfest
songfic
songful
songish
songlark
songless
songlet
songlike
songline
songmaker
songmaking
song man
songman
song of India
Song of Solomon
Song of Songs
songsheet
songsmith
songsome
song sparrow
songster
songtext
song thrush
songvid
songwise
songword
songworthy
songwriter
songwriting
songy
subsong
swan-song
swan song
table song
theme song
torch song
undern-song
undersong
vintage song
wedding song
whalesong
wondersong
work song
world song
Related terms: canticle
go for a song