Swan Song - Wiktionary

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• 1 English Toggle English subsection
  • 1.1 Alternative forms
  • 1.2 Etymology
  • 1.3 Pronunciation
  • 1.4 Noun
    • 1.4.1 Synonyms
    • 1.4.2 Translations
  • 1.5 References

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• Discussion

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In other projects Appearance move to sidebar hide From Wiktionary, the free dictionary See also: swansong

English

[edit] WOTD – 22 March 2006

English Wikipedia has an article on:swan songWikipedia

Alternative forms

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• swansong, swan-song

Etymology

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Calque of German Schwanenlied[1](from Schwan + Lied) or Schwanengesang;[2] from the belief that the mute swan sings before dying.

Pronunciation

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• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

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swan song (plural swan songs)

1. (idiomatic) A final performance or accomplishment, especially one before retirement.
   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter VIII, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book II (The Paper Age):Yet, on the whole, our good Saint-Pierre is musical, poetical though most morbid: we will call his Book the swan-song of old dying France.
   • 1908 February 19, Jack London, The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC:In no other way can be explained our sacrifices and martyrdoms. For no other reason did Rudolph Mendenhall flame out his soul for the Cause and sing his wild swan-song that last night of life.
   • 1916, Albert Bigelow Paine, The Boys' Life of Mark Twain‎[1]:"A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"[…]—a pretentious volume which Mark Twain really considered his last. "It's my swan-song, my retirement from literature permanently," he wrote Howells, though certainly he was young, fifty-four, to have reached this conclusion.
   • 1918 February (date written), Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Je ne parle pas français”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 114:Je ne parle pas français. That was her swan song for me.
   • 2020 November 9, Gwen Ihnat, “With McCartney III, Paul McCartney offers lessons from a legendary life”, in The A.V. Club:[…]McCartney III could mark the end of his recording career. For a musician as continually prolific as McCartney (this is his 18th solo record), that seems unlikely. But if it is indeed a swan song, McCartney III will stand as a proper coda for the singer-songwriter we’ve been listening to for fifty-odd years: sentimental yet strong, a bit wistful, but as always, looking ahead.
   • 2021 July 22, Philip Oltermann, “Merkel’s political and scientific sides slug it out in swan song presser”, in The Guardian‎[2]:Merkel’s political and scientific sides slug it out in swan song presser [title]
   • 2022 October 22, Wendy Ide, quoting Steven Spielberg, “‘It’s a way to bring my mum and dad back’: Steven Spielberg on the new wave of cine-memoirs”, in The Guardian‎[3]:[S]pielberg was keen to stress that The Fabelmans is not a full stop: “It is not because I decided to retire, and this is my swan song, don’t believe that.”

Synonyms

[edit]

• farewell performance, last hurrah, final act

Translations

[edit] a final performance

Arabic: please add this translation if you can Bulgarian: лебедова песен f (lebedova pesen) Catalan: cant del cigne m Chinese: 絕唱 Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Czech: labutí píseň (cs) Danish: svanesang (da) c Dutch: zwanenzang (nl) m Esperanto: cignokanto Estonian: luigelaul (et) Finnish: joutsenlaulu (fi) French: chant du cygne (fr) m German: Schwanengesang (de) m Greek: κύκνειο άσμα (el) n (kýkneio ásma) Hebrew: שירת הברבור Hungarian: hattyúdal (hu) Icelandic: svanasöngur Italian: canto del cigno m Japanese: 絶唱 (zesshou) Korean: 절창 (jeolchang) Norwegian: Bokmål: svanesang m Nynorsk: svanesong m Pannonian Rusyn: лебедова писня f (lebedova pisnja) Polish: łabędzi śpiew (pl) Portuguese: canto do cisne (pt) m, canto de cisne m, canção do cisne f, canção de cisne f Romanian: cântecul lebedei (ro) n Russian: лебеди́ная пе́сня (ru) f (lebedínaja pésnja) Sami: Northern Sami: svanesång Spanish: canto del cisne m Swedish: svanesång (sv) c

References

[edit]

1. ^ "swan song", Webster's Third New International Dictionary
2. ^ A Way With Words

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