A.Word.A.Day --swan song

A.Word.A.Day

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May 24, 2023

This week’s theme
Metaphors & idioms

This week’s words
baloney
daisy cutter
swan song
haircut
Piccadilly Circus

Schwanengesang (Swan Song)
14 songs, written by the Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828) before he died at the age of 31, published posthumously

Image: Alpha Classics

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

swan song or swansong

PRONUNCIATION:

(SWAN song)

MEANING:

noun: A farewell or final performance, appearance, or accomplishment.

ETYMOLOGY:

From the ancient belief that swans sang before dying. From Old English swan. Ultimately from the Indo-European root swen- (to sound), which also gave us sound, sonic, sonnet, sonata, and unison. Earliest documented use: 1596.

USAGE:

“Although Gadsby meant ‘Nanette’ to be a kind of swan song, she was so jazzed by its success that she came out of her brief retirement.”
Hilton Als; Only Disconnect; The New Yorker; Jul 29, 2019.

See more usage examples of swan song in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

It is the people who scream the loudest about America and Freedom who seem to be the most intolerant for a differing point of view. -Rosanne Cash, singer-songwriter and author (b. 24 May 1955)

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