tragicomoedia

Latin

Alternative forms

• tragicocōmoedia

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek τραγικοκωμῳδία (tragikokōmōidía), with haplology. By surface analysis, tragicus (“tragic”) +‎ cōmoedia (“comedy”).

Noun

tragicōmoedia f (genitive tragicōmoediae); first declension

1. tragicomedy
   • c. 190 BCE – 185 BCE, Plautus, Amphitryon 20.59:

     faciam ut commixta sit: sit tragicomoedia; / nam me perpetuo facere ut sit comoedia, / reges quo veniant et di, non par arbitror.

     I'll make it a mix: a tragicomedy; for I do not find it right for me to make it a comedy through and through, where kings and gods appear.

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	tragicōmoedia	tragicōmoediae
genitive	tragicōmoediae	tragicōmoediārum
dative	tragicōmoediae	tragicōmoediīs
accusative	tragicōmoediam	tragicōmoediās
ablative	tragicōmoediā	tragicōmoediīs
vocative	tragicōmoedia	tragicōmoediae

Descendants

• → Italian: tragicommedia (learned)
  • → Middle French: tragicomédie
    • French: tragicomédie
    • → English: tragicomedy

References

• “tragicocomoedia”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• tragicocomoedia in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.