wail

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English weilen, also wailen,^[2][3] probably borrowed from Old Norse væla (“to lament”), from væ (“woe”),^[4][5][6][2] an interjection like vei, woe.^[7][8] The Middle English diphthong does not fit the recorded verb, so the OED sets up an unrecorded *veila (compare veilan, wailing) from vei (“woe”),^[7][5] while the Middle English Dictionary explains it from the influence of veilan, vei and Middle English words for woe such as wei-la.^[2] The interjection is from Proto-Germanic *wai, and so akin to woe and Old English wā.^[9][10][8] Dictionary.com instead suggests a possible derivation from Old English weilā (“wellaway”).^[11] Johnson's derivation from Italian gualare is only of historical interest.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To utter long cries of pain or grief: about 1330 in Arthour and Merlin according to the OED,^[7] probably before 1300 in Kyng Alisaunder and the same romance according to Barnhart,^[13] and about 1300 according to Etymonline.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The core sense widened in the 14th century from crying aloud to the feeling and its object: to lament one's sin or misfortune (1362, in Langland),^[7] to mourn the dead (before 1382, in the Wycliffite Bible),^[7] to grieve bitterly (about 1374, in Chaucer's Troilus, dated about 1385 by Barnhart)^[7][13] and to complain bitterly (about 1388).^[7] Chaucer has the verb eighteen times and Gower three,^[14] and it was already joined with weep by the late 14th century: "For I moot wepe and wayle while I lyve".^[4][15] Wycliffe sometimes has waileress for a professional mourner.^[4] The transitive use is now poetic or rhetorical.^[7][3] From 1595 the verb was also used of animals, the weather and other natural things,^[7] and the use for music and instruments dates from 1852.^[7] The noun followed the verb, with dates from about 1300 in Etymonline^[4] to about 1540 in the OED, whose copy of the Destruction of Troy may reflect a text of about 1400.^[7] It came to mean any sound like a cry of pain in 1825, a single long cry in 1863 and a loud complaint in 1867.^[7] In American slang of the 1950s, especially of jazz musicians, to wail turned from sorrow to excellence: to play with great feeling or skill.^[7][4][16]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – to express grief or pain by long cries.^[7][13]
• 1362 – transitive, to lament a sin or misfortune.^[7]
• c. 1374 – to grieve bitterly.^[7][13]
• before 1382 – to mourn the dead.^[7]
• c. 1388 – to complain persistently and bitterly.^[7]
• c. 1540 – noun, vocal expression of grief.^[7]
• 1595 – of animals and the weather, to make a mournful sound.^[7]
• 1825 – noun, a sound like a cry of pain.^[7]
• 1852 – of music, to sound plaintive.^[7]
• 1863 – noun, a single long cry of pain or grief.^[7]
• 1867 – noun, a forceful expression of grievance.^[7]
• 1954 – American slang, of a performer: to let go, to play with abandon; the OED's first record, of jazz musicians, is from 1955.^[16][7][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To utter a long, high, mournful cry, as of grief or pain: The child wailed for its lost toy.^[17][3][7]
2. To make a sound like such a cry: The sirens wailed across the valley.^[17][3][7]
3. To complain bitterly or plaintively: The shareholders wailed about their losses.^[3][7]
4. (poetic, archaic) To lament or bewail something: to wail one's fate.^[3][7][17]
5. (US slang) Of a musician, to play with great feeling or skill.^[7][16]

Noun

1. A long, high, mournful cry; loud lamentation.^[17][3][7]
2. A sound like such a cry: the wail of a distant train.^[3][7]
3. A plaintive complaint.^[3][7]

Word family

• wailer
• wailingly
• wailful
• wailsome
• bewail

Related words

• woe
• wellaway

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ 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 r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins