elegious 
If your eli-fiiwiM breath wlmui.i imp to route 
A happy tear, close li:u l> rin^ in hfH eye, 
Then urge his pli-lited faith. 
f,J,,, ,,/.-,.'. llmlilems, V. 1. 
elegist (fl'G-jiMt), H. [< elegy + -<.] A writer 
CtHi: 
1873 
Our flrfii.il, and tin- chroniclers, impute the eri ...... >f 
withholding so pious a legacy I" the- advice "f tin- kin.- of 
Fiance. T. H'lifitw, Ili.-t. Knu. 1'oetry, I. 108. 
elegit (e-le'jit), n. [L., he has chosen: Sdpers. 
Hint;. ]'rf. iiul. of t-lii/iTi; cliooso: seeeteci.j 1. 
In luir, iii England and in some of the United 
stiitcs, a judicial writ of execution, which may 
at the election of the creditor issue on a judg- 
ment or on a forfeiture of recognizance, com- 
manding the sheriff to take the judgment debt- 
or's goods, and, if necessary thereafter, his 
lands, and deliver them to the judgment credi- 
tor, who can retain them until the satisfaction 
of the judgment. 2. The title to laud held un- 
der execution of a writ of elegit. 
elegize (el'e-jiz), v. i. or t. ; pret. and pp. cle- 
</r.i'/, ppr. i-li HI iinj. [<. elegy + -i:c.] To write 
or compose elegies ; celebrate or lament after 
the style of an elegy ; bewail. 
I ... perhaps should have etyr&ni onforapage or two 
farttu-r, when Harry, who lias no Idea of the dignity of 
grief, blundered in. //. Walpole, Letters, II. 371. 
elegy (el'e-ji), . ; pi. elegies (-jiz). [Formerly 
elegie; = 1). Or. elegie = Dan. Sw. elegi, < OF. ele- 
gie, F. 6leglc = Sp. elegia = Pg. It. elegia, < L. 
elegia, also elegea, elegeia, < Gr. ifayeia, fern. 
sing., but orig. neut. pi., TO e/UyrZa, an elegiac 
poem, in reference to the ineter (later a lament, 
an elegy), pi. of e'Af-yeiov, s distich consisting of 
a hexameter and a pentameter (> LL. elegium, 
< lii/riim, elegion, elegeon, an elegy; cf. L. dim. 
elegiition, elcgidurion, a short elegy), neut. (so. 
fitrpov, meter, or &rof, poem) of e'/.e yclof, prop. 
pertaining to a song of mourning, elegiac, < 
th yoc, a song of mourning, a lament, later (in 
reference to the usual meter of such songs) any 
poem in distichs; origin unknown. The usual 
derivation from J f ~y*j ' cry woe ! woe ! ' a re- 
frain in such songs ( i or rather e, an inter- 
jection of pain or grief, like E. ah, ay 2 , etc. ; 
Xt'je. 2d pers. sing, itupv. of t.eyeiv, say), is no 
doubt erroneous.] 1. In classicalpoe try, a poem 
written in elegiac verse. 
The third sorrowing was of loues, by long lamentation 
in Ktetfie : so was their song called, and it was in a piti- 
ous maner of meetre, placing a limping Pentameter after 
a lusty r.MiinetiT, which made it godolourously more then 
any other meeter. Putttnham , Arte of Eng. Poesle, p. 39. 
2. A mournful or plaintive poem ; a poem or 
song expressive of sorrow and lamentation ; a 
dirge ; a funeral song. 
And there is such a solemn melody. 
Tween doleful songs, tears and sad eletjif.it. 
Webster, White Devil, v. 1. 
Let Swans from their forsaken Rivers fly, 
And slck'ning at her Tomb, make haste to dye, 
That they may help to sing her Elf fry. 
Congreve, Death of Queen Mary. 
3. Any serious poem pervaded by a tone of 
melancholy, whether grief is actually exprrssi d 
or not: as, Gray's " Elegy in a Country Church- 
yard." 
Klrriy is the form of poetry natural to the reflective 
mind. It may treat of any subject, but it must treat of 
no subject for itself, but always and exclusively with ref- 
erence to the poet himself. Coleridge. 
4. In music, a sad or funereal composition, 
vocal or instrumental, whether actually com- 
memorative or not; a dirge. = Syn. Dirye. Kequiem, 
ete. See ilirrf. 
eleidin (e-le'i-din), n. [< Gr. i/aia, olive-oil, oil, 
+ -ill + -in'-'.] In flirm., a substance found in 
the stratum granulosum and elsewhere in the 
epidermis, and staining very deeply with car- 
mine : regarded by Waldeyer as identical with 
hyaline, and called on that account by Unna 
</ niti>/ii/illill. 
element (el'e-ment), . [< ME. element, < OF. 
il< mi at. 1". ,''li'i}i'-ni = Sp. Pg. It. elemento = D. 
(T. Dan. Sw. i-li'iiinit, < L. i-li nii-iitinii, a first prin- 
ciple, element, rudiment, pi. first principles, 
the elements (of existing things), the elements 
of knowledge, the alphabet : origin uncertain. 
The common derivation of the word from uli n; 
nourish, which would identity ili-mrntiim with 
nlinirntiim, nourishment (sec tilimrnt), is wholly 
improbable. Several other derivations have 
been proposed, of which one assumes the orig. 
sense to be 'the alphabet.' the 'A-B-C,' or lit. 
the 'L-M-N,' the word being formed, in this 
view, < el + em + en. the names of the letters 
L, M, N, + the term, -turn, as in the common 
formative -mention, K. -'<.] 1. That of which 
118 
anytmng is in part compounded, which exists 
in it, and which is itself not decomposable into 
parts of different kinds; a fundamental or ulti- 
mate part or principle ; hence, in general, any 
component part; any constituent part or prin- 
ciple. 
Thought 
U , and Its quick elements, will, passion, 
Reason, imagination, cannot die. Shelley, Hellas. 
Nuliir architecture is one element of culture. 
Loicell, Fireside Travels, p. 99. 
That element of tragedy which lies in the very fact of 
frequency has not yet wrought itself Into the coarse emo- 
tion of mankind. Qtorge Elinl, Middlcnmrch, I. 214. 
Three tribes, settlers on three hills, were the element! 
of which the original [Roman] commonwealth was made. 
K. A. freeman, Amer. Lects., p. 286. 
N"' ilk-ally (a) An Ingredient, especially of the tempera- 
ment. 
There's little of the melancholy element in her, my lord, 
Shale., Much Ado, ii. 1. 
('-) ]il. The rudimentary principles of any science : as, Eu- 
clid's " Elementi " (Or. vrotxtia), a work setting forth in an 
orderly and logical way the simple and fundamental propo- 
sitions of geometry. (e) In yearn., one of the points, lines, 
or planes, or other geometrical forms, by which a figure or 
geometrical construction is made up. "Space may be con- 
sidered as a geometrical figure whose elements are either 
polntsor planes. Taking the poinUas elements, the straight 
lines of space are so many ranges, and the planes of space 
so many planes of points. If, on the other hand, the planes 
are considered as elements, the straight lines of space are 
the axes of so many axial pencils, and points of space are 
centers of so many sheaves of planes ' (Cremona, Geom., 
tr. by Leuesdorff, 31). (d) In math., one of a number of 
objects arranged in a symmetrical or regular figure. The 
elements of a determinant are the quantities arranged in a 
square block or matrix, the sum of whose products forms 
the determinant, (e) In antrvn., one of the quantities 
necessary to be known in calculating the place of a planet 
(perhaps because the planets were called elements). They 
are six, namely, the longitude of the ascending node, the 
inclination of the orbit to the ecliptic, the longitude of the 
perihelion, the mean distance from the sun, the mean 
longitude at any epoch, and the eccentricity. Hence 
(/) A datum required for the solution of any problem. 
0?) //. The bread and wine used in the eucharist: dis- 
tinctively called communion element*. 
When all have communicated, the Bishop shall return 
to the Lord's Table, and reverently plaee upon it what 
remaineth of the consecrated Elements, covering the same 
with a fair linen cloth. 
Hook of Common Prayer, Holy Communion. 
(h) In biol., one of the primary or embryological parts 
composing the body of an animal, or of the pieces which 
have united to form any part. Thus, the thorax of an 
insect is composed of three principal elements or rings, 
the epicranium is formed of several elements or nieces 
which are soldered together, etc. (0 In elect., a voltaic 
cell. See cell. 
The bichromate of potassium batteries, composed of 
four troughs with six compartments, making twenty-four 
element* in circuit. A mercury commutator enabled us 
to use at pleasure six, twelve, eighteen, or twenty-four 
elements, and thus to obtain four different speeds of the 
screw [of an electric balloon). Science, III. 154. 
2. One of the four things, fire, water, earth, 
and air (to which ether was added as a fifth 
element), falsely regarded by the ancients as 
the constituents of which all things are com- 
posed. Water, as an element, consists of all that is in the 
rain, the rivers, the sea, etc.; tin-, of lightning, the sun, 
etc. ; these, together with the air and earth, were supposed 
to make up the mutter of nature. The elements often 
means in a particular sense wind and water, especially in 
action : as, the fury of the elements. 
" It is a water that Is rnaad, I seye, 
Of elementei fonrc," qnod Plato. 
Chaucer, Canon's Yeoman's Tale (ed. skeut ), 0. 1. 1480. 
3e haue thanne in the ampulle f j. elc-menti* : that is to 
seie, watir and eyr, 
Book of Quinte Essence (ed. Furnlvall), p. 12. 
My Ariel, chick, 
That is thy charge ; then to the elements ! 
Be free, and fare thou well ! Shak., Tempest, v. 1. 
I've heard 
Schoolmen affirm, man's body is compos 'd 
Of the four element*. Matsinger, Renegado, iii. 2. 
And, lost each human trace, surrendering up 
Thine individual being, shaft thou go 
To mix forever with the elements. 
Bryant, Thanatopsis. 
3. A kind of matter undecomposable into other 
kinds. The elements as enumerated by Empedocles, and 
generally recognized in antiquity, were four fire, water, 
earth, and air. (See2.) The older chemists, of the fifteenth 
century and later, recognized three elements sulphur, 
reury, and salt. In modem chemistry an element, IT 
elementary )>ody, is regarded merely asasimplesuhstain < 
which lias hitherto resisted analysis by any known chemi- 
cal means. The list of such elements is a provisional one, 
since it is possible, and not improbable, that many bodies 
n. m con-idcred elementary may be proved to be com- 
pound. There are about 70 elements at present (1889) rec- 
in:ni/i>d liy chemists, commonly divided into two group!, 
iiiiinely, metal* and the nun-metallic bodies or metalloid*. 
The non-metallic elements are hydrogen, chlorin, bro- 
mine, iodine, fliiorln, oxygen, sulphur, selenium, tellurium, 
nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, bismuth, boron, 
-ilieon, and carbon. (See m. lalloid.) The remaining eh- 
ments are regarded as metals. (See inetnl.) Five cf the 
elements, nxy^en. nitrogen. hydrogen. ehlorin, and flnorin, 
are gases at ordinary temperatures : two. tiromine and 
tneniuy, ; m- liquids; the rest are -nli.K. I h. pi.i]u-rties 
of all the elements bear a close relation to their atomic 
element 
*<* periodic lair, under periodic.) The following 
a llat of the elements with symbols and atomic weight*. 
Is a lilt 
, ** 
- 
;,;: - 
Aluminium 
Al 
17 1 
Antimony 
Ib 
Arsenic 
Aj 
75 
Barium 
137.1 
Beryllium (see ylvcinum) 
Be 
Bismuth 
Bi 
208 
Boron 
B 
11 
Bromine 
Br 
80 
Cadmium 
rd 
112.1 
Ca-slnm 
i , 
182. S 
Calcium 
Ca 
40 
Carbon .... 
c 
1* 
Cerium . 
Ce 
MLS 
chlorin 
Cl 
36.5 
chromium 
Cr 
62.3 
Cobalt 
Co 
68.8 
Columblum (see /,,"',, ,,,>. 
Copi>er 
Cu 
63.3 
Decipfum 
Dp 
171 
1) or IM 
145 
Krbliim 
Er 
168 
K or n 
Gallium 
Ga 
70 
Germanium 
Oe 
7iS 
Be or Gl 
9.1 
Gold . 
An 
198.7 
Hydrogen . . 
H 
1 
Indium 
In 
113.7 
I 
128.9 
Indium 
Ir 
193 
Ke 
La 
138 
Lead 
Pb 
mi.'i 
Lithium .. 
14 
7 
Mg 
24.4 
MM 
66 
Hg 
200.1 
Molybdenum . . . 
Mo 
98 
Nickel .. 
VI 
68 
Niobium 
Nb 
94 
N 
14 
Os 
!''.-, 
() 
16 
Palladium 
Pd 
106.5 
Phosphorus 
p 
81 
Pi 
194.9 
K 
39.1 
Rh 
104 
Rubidium 
Rb 
85.4 
Ruthenium 
Ru 
104 
150 
Scandium 
Sc 
44 
-. 
79 
Silicon .. 
81 
28 
Silver 
Ag 
107.9 
Sodium 
\a 
23 
Sr 
876 
8 
32 
Tantalum 
Ta 
182.8 
Tellurium . 
Te 
125 
Terbium 
Tr 
162 
Thallium 
Tl 
204 2 
Thorium 
Th 
238 
Tin 
8n 
118.1 
Titanium 
Tl 
48 1 
W 
184 
U 
240 
v 
61,3 
Yb 
173 
Yttrium 
y 
89 5 
Zinc 
Zn 
65.3 
Zr 
90.5 
There are a number of other bodies which have been 
named as elements (as phillipium, scandium, norwegium, 
etc.), whose properties have, however, not been sufficient- 
ly investigated and defined to warrant their inclusion In 
the list. 
4. The proper or natural environment of any- 
thing; that in which something exists; hence, 
the sphere of experience of a person ; the class 
of persons with whom one naturally associ- 
ates, or the sphere of life with which one is 
familiar: as, he is out of his element. 
We are simple men ; we do not know what's brought to 
pass under the profession of fortune-telling. She works 
by charms, by spells, by the figure, and such daubery as 
this U, beyond our element : We know nothing. 
.'/m*-., M. W. of W., iv. i. 
This Tim is the head of a species : he Is a little out of 
his element in this town; blithe isa relation of Tranqiiillus, 
and his neighbour In the country, which Is the tnie place 
of residence for this species. Steele, Tatler, No. 85. 
Circulating element. See circulate. Double element. 
See double. Element of a figure, in the calculus, an 
infinitesimal part of it. Elements of a crystal. See 
parameter. Magnetic elements of a place, the decli- 
nation and inclination of the magnetic needle and the 
Intensity of the earths magnetic attraction. Osculat- 
ing elements. See osculating. 
elementt (el'e-ment), f. t. [< element, .] 1. 
To compound of elements or first principles. 
Whether any one such body be met with, In those said 
to be elemented bodies, I now question. Boyle. 
2. To constitute ; form from elements ; com- 
pose ; enter into the constitution of. 
Dull, sublunary lover's love 
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit 
Of altsence, 'cause ft doth remove 
The thing which '!fwntrd it. 
Dunne, Vindication Forbidding Mourning. 
