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Aubade is a French word that first romanced speakers of the English language during the 1670s. In French it means "dawn serenade," and that is the meaning that English-speakers originally fell in love with. As the relationship of "aubade" with the English language grew, its meanings became a little more intimate. It blossomed into a word for a song or poem of lovers parting at dawn. Later it came to refer to songs sung in the morning hours. The affair between "aubade" and the dawn began with the Old Occitan word auba, meaning "dawn." "Auba" itself is believed to come from Latin albus, meaning "white."
Examples of aubade in a Sentence
Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 20 May 2022
This ebullience of this aubade-style effusion is entirely new.
—Gregory Dowling, WSJ, 16 July 2021
Sunshine cascades through the generous windows of the I.C.U., but the rays seem to flounder once in the rooms—an aubade without an audience.
—Danielle Ofri, The New Yorker, 1 Oct. 2020
Cite this Entry
“Aubade.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aubade. Accessed 3 May. 2025.
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