song

a song (sense 1) sung by a person

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.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /sɒŋ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sɔŋ/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /sɑŋ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒŋ

song (countable and uncountable, plural songs)

2. (music) A musical composition with lyrics for voice or voices, performed by singing.

   Thomas listened to his favorite song on the radio yesterday.

   • 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:

     The Harpe. […] A harper with his wreſt maye tune the harpe wrong / Mys tunying of an Inſtrument ſhal hurt a true ſonge

   • 1852, Mrs M.A. Thompson, “The Tutor's Daughter”, in Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion, page 266:

     In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     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.

3. (by extension) Any musical composition.
4. Poetical composition; poetry; verse.
   • 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:

     This subject for heroic song.

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     The bard that first adorned our native tongue / Tuned to his British lyre this ancient song.

5. The act or art of singing.
   • 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:

     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.

   • 1942, Robert Peter Tristram Coffin, The Substance that is Poetry (Patten Foundation series)‎^[1], Macmillan, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 71:

     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. […]

6. A melodious sound made by a bird, insect, whale or other animal.

   I love hearing the song of canary birds.

   • 1833, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Canterbury Pilgrims:

     That most ethereal of all sounds, the song of crickets.

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 85:

     The robin alone by his soft morning song broke the silence and the solitude which reigned in the forest.

7. (ornithology) 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.
8. A low price, especially one under the expected value; chiefly in for a song.

   He bought that car for a song.

   • 1810, Benjamin Silliman, A Journal of Travels in England, Holland and Scotland:

     his [a common soldier's] pay is a song.

   • 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:

     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; […].

9. An object of derision; a laughing stock.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 30:9:

     And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.

• → Polish: song

• canticle
• go for a song

• NGOs, NGSO, Ngos, gons, nogs, snog

Cognate with Garo song. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

song

1. village

• van Breugel, Seino. 2015. Atong-English dictionary, second edition. Available online: https://www.academia.edu/487044/Atong_English_Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsoŋ/ [ˈsoŋ]

song

1. rhinoceros beetle

song

1. angry

Borrowed from English song. Doublet of zang.

• Audio:

  (file)

song m (plural songs)

1. song

   Synonyms: lied, liedje

From Old Norse sæing (“bed”), later sæng.

• IPA^(key): /sɔŋk/

song f (genitive singular songar or seingjar, plural seingir or sengur)

1. bed

• barnasong

• kamar
• sovikamar
• svøvnposi
• svøvnur
• koddi

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

song

1. village, hamlet
2. classifier for villages

• songjinma
• songsal

song

1. Nonstandard spelling of sōng.
2. Nonstandard spelling of sóng.
3. Nonstandard spelling of sǒng.
4. Nonstandard spelling of sòng.

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

• sange, sang, songe, soong, songge
• zang, zong, zonge (Kent)

From Old English sang, song, from Proto-West Germanic *sangw, from Proto-Germanic *sangwaz.

• IPA^(key): /sɔnɡ/, /sɔːnɡ/, /sanɡ/, /saːnɡ/

song (plural songes)

1. A song (lyrical music):
   1. Religious or spiritual chanting or hymns.
   2. An exposition or story, especially a sung one.
   3. A song supposed to have occult or magical power.
2. The practice or an instance of singing songs.
3. The sound produced by a bird (rarely other creatures)
4. A tune; non-lyrical music.
5. A quip, declaration, or remark.
6. A poem; a written work in verse.

• songly

• English: song
• Scots: song, sang
• Yola: zong

• “sō̆ng, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-10-24.

From Old Norse sǫngr. Akin to English song.

• IPA^(key): /sɔŋː/

song m (definite singular songen, indefinite plural songar, definite plural songane)

1. song

   Kven er det som syng denne songen?

   Who sings this song?

song

1. past of syngja and synga

• “song” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): /sonɡ/, [soŋɡ]

song m

1. Alternative form of sang

Strong a-stem:

Borrowed from English song.^[1][2]

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɔŋk/
• Rhymes: -ɔŋk
• Syllabification: song

song m inan

1. (music, theater) musical theater song, usually with social or political commentary (Is there an English equivalent to this definition?)

• song in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• song in Polish dictionaries at PWN

From English song.

song

1. song

• IPA^(key): /sʷɔ́ŋ/

song

1. dance

song

1. to dance

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [sawŋ͡m˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʂawŋ͡m˧˧] ~ [sɔŋ˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [ʂawŋ͡m˧˧] ~ [sawŋ͡m˧˧]
• Homophone: xong

• Audio (Hà Nội):

  (file)

From Proto-Vietic *k-rɔːŋ (“rush [plant]”). Cognate with Chut [Rục] kərɔːŋ¹ ("rush") and krɔːŋ ("rattan").

(classifier cây) song • (𧄐, 𫁷, 󰓖)

1. big rattan

Sino-Vietnamese word from 窗 (“window”).

song • (𣙩, 漴, 牕, 窓, 窻)

1. (archaic, literary) window
2. Short for chấn song (“upright post in a paling or railing”).

   sau song sắt

   behind (iron) bars

• song hồ

Sino-Vietnamese word from 雙 (“double; pair”).

song

1. bi-; double; parallel

   song đấm

   twin punches; punches performed with both hands

song

1. (formal) however
2. (formal) but

• song le

From Proto-Tai *soːŋᴬ, from Middle Chinese 雙 (MC sraewng, “two”). Cognate with Thai สอง (sɔ̌ɔng), Northern Thai ᩈᩬᨦ, Lao ສອງ (sǭng), Lü ᦉᦸᧂ (ṡoang), Tai Dam ꪎꪮꪉ, Shan သွင် (sǎung), Tai Nüa ᥔᥩᥒᥴ (sóang), Ahom 𑜏𑜨𑜂𑜫 (soṅ), Bouyei soongl.

• (Standard Zhuang) IPA^(key): /θoːŋ˨˦/
• Tone numbers: song¹
• Hyphenation: song

song (Sawndip forms 雙 or 双 or 松, 1957–1982 spelling soŋ)

1. two

   song bak

   two hundred

   • 2008, Rint Sybesma, “Zhuang: A Tai language with some Sinitic characteristics”, in Pieter Muysken, editor, From Linguistic Areas to Areal Linguistics, page 246:

     De   fwngz   ndeu   yaeuj   ndaej   song   doengj   raemx   bae!
     3s    hand    one     raise    ACQ    two    bucket    water    PRT
     S/he can lift two buckets of water with one hand!

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Used with ndeu rather than it.

• ngeih