song

Etymology

From Middle English song, sang, from Old English sang, from Proto-West Germanic *sangu, from Proto-Germanic *sangwaz (“singing, song”), from Proto-Indo-European *sengʷʰ- (“to sing”). Cognate with Scots sang, song (“singing, song”), Saterland Frisian Song (“song”), West Frisian sang (“song”), Dutch zang (“song”), Low German sang (“song”), German Sang (“singing, song”), Swedish sång (“song”), Norwegian Bokmål sang (“song”), Norwegian Nynorsk song (“song”), Icelandic söngur (“song”), Ancient Greek ὀμφή (omphḗ, “voice, oracle”). More at sing.

noun

1. A musical composition with lyrics for voice or voices, performed by singing.
   Thomas listened to his favorite song on the radio yesterday.
   The Harpe. […] A harper with his wreſt maye tune the harpe wrong / Mys tunying of an Inſtrument ſhal hurt a true ſonge 1568, William Cornishe [i.e., William Cornysh], “In the Fleete Made by Me William Cornishe otherwise Called Nyshwhete Chapelman with the Most Famose and Noble Kyng Henry the VII. His Reygne the XIX. Yere the Moneth of July. A Treatise betwene Trouth, and Information.”, in John Skelton, edited by J[ohn] S[tow], Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate, Imprinted at London: In Fletestreate, neare vnto Saint Dunstones Churche by Thomas Marshe, →OCLC; republished as Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate to King Henry the VIIIth, London: Printed for C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, 1736, →OCLC, page 290
   In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road. 1852, Mrs M.A. Thompson, “The Tutor's Daughter”, in Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion, page 266
2. (by extension) Any musical composition.
3. Poetical composition; poetry; verse.
4. The act or art of singing.
   How often the enthusiast has dwelt upon the birds bursting into song, the buds bursting into flower, all nature bursting into life!—as though a state of things in which everything around us is bursting is at all pleasant. 1884, Spencer Leigh Hughes, “The Weather. A Short Study on a Great Subject.”, in Golden Hours: A Monthly Magazine for Family and General Reading, volume XVII, London: Lile and Fawcett,[…], page 28, column 1
   Or take one that is less of an explanation and more of a song , The Spider . I knew all along what I wanted to say about a spider . I wanted to say all the good things I could . For spiders are the one order of creation that I thoroughly dislike.[…] 1942, Robert Peter Tristram Coffin, The Substance that is Poetry (Patten Foundation series), Macmillan, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 71
5. A melodious sound made by a bird, insect, whale or other animal.
   I love hearing the song of canary birds.
   That most ethereal of all sounds, the song of crickets. 1833, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Canterbury Pilgrims
   The robin alone by his soft morning song broke the silence and the solitude which reigned in the forest. 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 85
6. (ornithology) The distinctive sound that a male bird utters to attract a mate or to protect his territory; contrasts with call; also, similar vocalisations made by female birds.
7. A low price, especially one under the expected value; chiefly in for a song.
   He bought that car for a song.
   his [a common soldier's] pay is a song. 1810, Benjamin Silliman, A Journal of Travels in England, Holland and Scotland
8. An object of derision; a laughing stock.