Etymologically
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moan

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Pronunciation

  • /məʊn/, /moʊn/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English mone, also man and mane,[2][3][4] probably inherited from Old English *mān (“complaint, lamentation”), a noun not found in writing but implied by the verb mǣnan (“to complain, lament; to tell, intend”).[3][4][5][6] Barnhart and Hoad take it from Proto-Germanic *mainō (“opinion, mind”),[3][4][7] the source of Old Frisian mēne (“opinion”) and Old High German meina (“opinion”),[8][7][9] and the American Heritage Dictionary refers it to Proto-Indo-European *mei-no- (“opinion, intention”).[10][7] The OED calls the origin uncertain, perhaps a lost Old English noun matching the obsolete verb mean, to complain, and perhaps further related to mean, to intend;[8] it holds that mān (“wickedness”) is apparently unrelated, although its cognate Old Norse mein also meant "hurt".[8] Etymonline notes that the OED doubts the link with mean,[11] and the Oxford Dictionary of English calls the word of unknown origin.[12] The verb was formed from the noun in Middle English.[8][13] From the 16th century it replaced the old verb mean, to lament.[8][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lamentation, complaint: about 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle, often in the phrase to make one's moan, to lament or complain.[8][3] Barnhart dates it probably before 1200, and Etymonline about 1200.[3][11]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English a moan was any lament or complaint, a request or prayer (before 1325 to 1878), or a state of grief (about 1390 to 1645).[8][11] The verb is recorded from before 1325, in Genesis and Exodus, meaning to lament or bewail.[8][3] The sense of a long, low sound of suffering is first quoted in 1599,[8] though Barnhart and Etymonline date it to the 1670s, Barnhart citing Milton's Sonnets (1673);[3][11] the OED thinks this sense may be partly imitative.[8][4] The verb followed, about 1700, or 1724 according to Etymonline and Barnhart.[8][11][3] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "lamentation; audible sorrow; grief expressed in words or cries".[14] The noun was used of the wind or water from 1730, the verb from 1805,[8] and in later use a moan could express pleasure as well as pain.[8] In 1911 a moan was a grievance in Services' slang, and the word spread in British colloquial use for a trivial complaint, with the verb "to grumble" recorded from before 1922 in T. S. Eliot's drafts of The Waste Land.[8][15] In Scotland, Ireland and the north of England it kept the old senses to mourn, grieve and complain,[16] and in Scots the word, when pronounced /men/, merged with mean, to lament.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 1225 – lamentation, complaint (Ancrene Riwle).[8][3]
  • before 1325 – verb, to lament, bewail (Genesis and Exodus).[8][3]
  • before 1325 – a request or prayer (obsolete by 1878).[8]
  • c. 1330 – verb, intransitive, to lament or grieve.[8]
  • 1581 – verb, to pity or condole with.[8]
  • 1599 – a long, low sound of suffering.[8]
  • 1673 – the same sense, in Milton, according to Barnhart.[3]
  • c. 1700 – verb, to make a low sound of suffering.[8]
  • 1730 – a low, plaintive sound of wind or water.[8]
  • 1820 – verb, to utter with a moan (Keats).[8]
  • 1911 – a complaint, a grumble (Services' slang).[8][15]
  • before 1922 – verb, to grumble.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A long, low sound made by a person or animal in pain or grief, or in pleasure.[17][2][8]
  2. A similar low, mournful sound, especially of the wind.[17][2][8]
  3. (informal, chiefly British) A complaint or grumble, often about something trivial.[17][8]
  4. Lamentation or complaint, now chiefly Scottish, as in to make (one's) moan, to lament or complain.[8][2]
  5. (obsolete, 1390–1645) A state of grief; sorrow.[8][2]

Verb

  1. To make a long, low sound of pain, grief or pleasure: The patient moaned in her sleep.[17][2][8]
  2. Of the wind or water, to make a similar sound.[17][8]
  3. To say something in a low, mournful voice.[17][8]
  4. (informal, chiefly British) To grumble or complain: He is always moaning about the trains.[17][8]
  5. To lament or bewail something (now rare).[2][8]
  6. (Scotland and Ireland) To pity or condole with someone.[8][13]

Word family

  • moaner
  • moanful
  • moanfully
  • moaningly
  • unmoaned

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  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 d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  11. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  16. ^ 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)
  17. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins