Etymologically
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lamentatio

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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]

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