roundelay

9.9

A short song or poem that repeats a line like a chorus

noun
/ˈraʊndəˌleɪ/

Archaic

: ronde

The children sang a cheerful roundelay during their school performance.

Examples

You come along With your pretty little song - Gay little roundelay -

Bambi (1942)
We put on a little play, with roundelays of dancing animals and flowers.

Fiction book (2000)
Gay little roundelay -

Bambi (1942)
A group of carolers, their eager faces upturned, sings an endless and cloying roundelay of "Little Drummer Boy."

Fiction book (1991)
♪ ...In accents clear ♪ ♪ This joyous roundelay ♪ He loves me ♪ He is here ♪ ♪ Fa-la-la-la ♪ ♪ Fa-la-la-la ♪ ♪ He loves me ♪ He is here ♪ ♪ Fa-la-la-la, fa-la ♪

Wilde (1997)
At the festival, the band played a lively roundelay that had everyone clapping along.
As the evening unfolded, we enjoyed a beautiful roundelay of love and loss in the songs.

Synonyms

roundel

vsroundelay

Literature

1 9.9

A short poem with three groups of three lines and a repeated line after the first and third groups

is a general repeated refrain type rather than a strict triplet structure

ronde

vsroundelay

Archaic

9.9

An old short song or poem with a repeated part people sing together

is a general term for any song or poem that repeats a phrase

rondeau

vsroundelay

Archaic

9.9

A poem of 10 or 13 lines with two rhymes and the opening phrase repeated in later stanzas

is a broader name for songs or poems that simply repeat a line

Surface Forms

roundelay singular

roundelays plural

Morphology

roundelay = round + lay (opaque) = round + lay

Although historically compositional (round + lay), the component 'lay' is archaic and the specific musical sense of 'round' is somewhat specialized, so the meaning is not reliably derivable for a B1 learner.

Etymology

Roundelay comes from the simple parts round ('circle') and lay ('song'). So it was a 'song that goes in a circle' and comes back to the same line, which is why a roundelay today is a song or poem with a repeated line.