melodrama
English
/ˈmɛləˌdɹɑːmə/
noun
Definitions
- (archaic) A kind of drama having a musical accompaniment to intensify the effect of certain scenes.
- (countable) A drama abounding in romantic sentiment and agonizing situations, with a musical accompaniment only in parts which are especially thrilling or pathetic. In opera, a passage in which the orchestra plays a somewhat descriptive accompaniment, while the actor speaks
- (uncountable) Any situation or action which is blown out of proportion.
Etymology
Derived from French mélodrame derived from Ancient Greek μέλος (limb, song, melody, member, tune, music, part of the body).
Origin
Ancient Greek
μέλος
Gloss
limb, song, melody, member, tune, music, part of the body
Concept
Semantic Field
Modern world
Ontological Category
Classifier
Kanji
楽
Emoji
🎵
Timeline
Distribution of cognates by language
Geogrpahic distribution of cognates
Cognates and derived terms
- acromesomelia English
- amelia English
- anisomelia English
- melodrame English
- melomaniac English
- melos English
- polymelia English
- melos Latin
- drame French
- maniaque French
- mélodrame French
- melodrama Spanish, Castilian
- Δημομέλης Ancient Greek
- Σεμέλη Ancient Greek
- δρᾶμα Ancient Greek
- λαλοβαρυπαραμελορυθμοβάτης Ancient Greek
- μέλος Ancient Greek
- *mel- Proto-Indo-European
- melodrama Norwegian Bokmål
- melodrama Norwegian Nynorsk
- ερρινομελής Greek (modern)