lament

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English lamenten, also lementen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French lamenter (“to moan, bewail”)^[5][4][2][6] and directly borrowed from Latin lāmentor (“to wail, moan, weep”),^[7][5][3][8] from lāmentum (“a wailing, weeping”);^[7][5][4] the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English derive it from the plural lāmenta (“wailing, groans”).^[9][10] Etymonline and Barnhart allow that it may also be a back-formation from lamentation.^[5][3] The noun is borrowed from Middle French lament and probably directly the same Latin noun, or a noun use of the verb.^[3][5][11] Barnhart relates the Latin word to lātrō (“to bark”) and to Lithuanian lóti (“to bark”), from Proto-Indo-European *lā- (“a crying sound”),^[3][6] which Klein, Skeat and Weekley take as imitative.^[6][12][13] Klein adds Latvian lāt (“to bark”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To regret or be sorry for something: before 1450, as lementen, in the romance Partonope in the MED's dating;^[2][3] Etymonline dates the verb to the mid-15th century.^[5] The OED, which does not record the Middle English form, starts with the intransitive sense "to mourn passionately" about 1515, in Lord Berners's translation of Huon of Bordeaux.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The sense "to express grief" is recorded in 1530, in Palsgrave,^[3] and the transitive use, to mourn for a person or bewail an event, in Coverdale's Bible of 1535,^[7] though Etymonline dates it only to the 1610s.^[5] In modern use the verb can mean simply to feel sorrow, not only to show it.^[7][9] A causative sense, to grieve or distress someone, was used from 1580 to 1704.^[7] The noun, a loud expression of grief, appears in 1591 in Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 1 according to Barnhart and Merriam-Webster,^[3][8] and about 1592 in Marlowe's Jew of Malta in the OED.^[7] From 1698 a lament was also a song or poem of mourning, such as a dirge performed at a burial.^[7][5]

Timeline

• before 1450 – lementen, to regret, be sorry for.^[2][3]
• c. 1515 – intransitive, to mourn passionately.^[7]
• 1530 – to express grief.^[3]
• 1535 – transitive, to mourn for, bewail.^[7]
• 1580 – to cause grief to (obsolete by 1704).^[7]
• 1591 – noun, an expression of grief.^[3][8][7]
• 1698 – noun, a song of mourning, an elegy or dirge.^[7][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To feel or show deep sorrow; to mourn or wail: The villagers lamented for the drowned fishermen.^[14][8][7]
2. To express sorrow or regret for something or someone: Many readers lamented the closing of the old bookshop.^[14][8][7]

Noun

1. An expression of grief or sorrow; a complaint.^[14][8][7]
2. A poem or song mourning a death or a loss; an elegy or dirge.^[14][8][7]

Word family

• lamenter
• lamentingly

Related words

• lamentable
• lamentation
• Lamentations

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins