epithalamium

noun

Etymology: Learned borrowing from Latin epithalamium, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek ἐπιθαλάμιον (epithalámion, “bridal song”), neuter form of ἐπιθαλάμιος (epithalámios), from ἐπί (epí, “upon”) + θάλαμος (thálamos, “inner chamber, wedding chamber”).

1. A song or poem celebrating a marriage.

   “Softly she laughed and sighed, and swift her glances flew. She shook her heavy tresses, and their perfume filled the place; she struck her little sandalled foot upon the floor, and hummed a snatch of some old Greek epithalamium.”

   “He has wittily redone a tardy epithalamium and some nursery rhymes ("Three blind eunuchs"), and deftly catches the cozy lawnfuls of plastic dwarfs and flamingos, outside the kenneled people.”

2. A song in praise of the bride or bridegroom

   “The Caves of Ajanta, the medieval Courts of Love, the epithalamia of the erotic poets [...] all testify to the glorification of manhood, the supremacy of the sex motif.”