groan

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English gronen, also granen and granien,^[2][3] inherited from Old English grānian (“to groan, lament, murmur”),^[4][5][6][3] from Proto-Germanic *grainōną,^[4][7][8] which Etymonline gives as *grain- and takes as either imitative or related to the verb grin.^[9] The Old English verb is cognate with Middle Low German grīnen (“to twist the mouth in a grumble, snarl”), Old High German grīnan (“to laugh or cry; to mutter”) (modern German greinen (“to whine”)) and Old Norse grína (“to bare the teeth”),^[3][10][11] all from the strong verb Proto-Germanic *grīnaną, which Orel considers imitative.^[12][7] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English relate it to grin, probably from the same root.^[7][13][14] The noun, first grane and later gron, is formed from the verb.^[4][9][3] The spelling groan, with an o and a for the long vowel, began to appear in the late 16th century.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To breathe with a deep murmur, to utter a low sound of grief or pain: Old English, in a gloss in the Blickling Homilies,^[4] probably before 800 according to Barnhart.^[3] Bosworth–Toller glosses the Old English verb as to groan, lament or murmur, in glosses on the Psalms.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English gronen also meant to bewail or lament, and to groan in childbirth, to be in confinement;^[2][3] the sense "to complain" is from the early 13th century, especially in the phrase grutchen and gronen.^[9] Chaucer used the verb 13 times and Gower 3 times, glossed "groan, moan; complain".^[15] In hunting language from 1486 it was used of a buck making its cry at rutting time, a sense long obsolete.^[4] From 1513 it was used of things that make a deep harsh sound like a groan;^[4] from 1613 it was used of being weighed down to the point of groaning, groaning under a burden,^[4] so that by 1697 tables and the like could groan with their load.^[4] A sense of yearning, to groan for something, is recorded from about 1560.^[4] As an expression of disapproval, as by an audience, the word dates from 1799.^[9] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "breath expired with noise and difficulty".^[16] In English and Scottish dialects the verb meant to grumble or complain, and in Suffolk it meant to be in childbirth; a groaning was a confinement, and groaning-ale, groaning-cake and groaning-cheese were provided for it.^[17]

Timeline

• before 800 – Old English grānian, to groan, murmur.^[3][4]
• early 13th century – to complain.^[9]
• c. 1325 – noun, an act of groaning.^[4][3]
• before 1400 – to groan inwardly, in the Cursor Mundi.^[4]
• 1486 – of a buck, to cry at rutting time (now obsolete).^[4]
• 1513 – to make a deep harsh sound like a groan.^[4]
• late 1500s – the spelling groan.^[3]
• 1609 – to utter with groans, in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida.^[4]
• 1613 – to be oppressed or overburdened.^[4]
• 1799 – as an expression of disapproval.^[9]
• 1816 – to talk in a groaning voice, grumble, in Scott's Old Mortality.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make a deep, low, inarticulate sound of pain, grief, annoyance or disapproval: The audience groaned at every pun.^[10][18][5]
2. To make a deep, harsh creaking sound, as under strain: The old stairs groaned under his weight.^[10][18][5]
3. To be weighed down or suffer greatly under something: The farmers groaned under the new taxes.^[18][4]
4. To say something with a groan.^[5][4]
5. To grumble or complain.^[4][18]

Noun

1. A deep, low sound of pain, grief, annoyance or disapproval.^[10][18][5]
2. A harsh creaking sound made by something under strain.^[10][18]
3. (informal) A complaint or grumble.^[18]

Word family

• groaner
• groaningly

Related words

• grin
• moan

Usage notes

Dictionary.com distinguishes a groan, a brief, deep sound forced out by pain or suffering, from a moan, a longer, more or less continuous low sound of physical or mental suffering.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
12. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
13. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
18. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
19. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House