N. Zealand. [Maori, = lament, dirge.] A formal lamentation; a dirge, a coronach.
1838. Polack, N. Zealand, 1831–7, I. xi. 358. The tangi, or luxury of prostrating themselves in tears.
1845. E. J. Wakefield, Adv. N. Zealand, I. vii. 194. They … bore it [a corpse] … to the village, where the usual tangi took place.
1883. Renwick, Betrayed, 41. ’Tis the tangi floats on the sea borne breeze, In its echoing notes of wild despair.
1901. Scotsman, 9 April, 6/5. The … Agent-General for New Zealand recently received from the Maori inhabitants of his colony a ‘tangi’ or ‘lament’ on the death of Queen Victoria.
