lamentatio

Forms

lāmentātiō f (genitive lāmentātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin lāmentor (“to wail, lament”) + -tiō.^[2][1][3][4] De Vaan derives that verb from lāmentum (“wailing”), from Proto-Italic *lāmnto- (“howling”) and Proto-Indo-European *leh2-mn-to- (“howling, crying”), comparing Lithuanian lóti (“to bark”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^[5][4] who lists grief, tears and lamentation together in the Mercator.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It is wailing or lamentation, above all for the dead.^[2][3] Cicero defines it as distress with wailing, and speaks of filling the forum with beating of breasts and lamentation.^[6] The TLL finds it in verse only in single passages of Plautus and Seneca's tragedies, in prose from Cicero on.^[3] In Church Latin the plural is the title of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and the Vulgate has a night of lamentation.^[6][7] Medieval Latin uses it of a legal complaint or action.^[8] English lamentation (late 14th century) came through Old French and directly from Latin.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.^[6][5][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero defines it.^[6]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate, Lamentationes for the book of Jeremiah.^[6]
• late 14th century – English lamentation.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Wailing, lamentation, weeping, moaning.^[2][6][1][7]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin, plural) The Lamentations of Jeremiah.^[6]
3. (Medieval Latin) A legal complaint, action.^[8]

Related words

• lāmentor
• English lamentation

Usage notes

Lewis & Short compare querela, questus, lāmentum, plangor and planctus.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com