lamentar

Forms

lamentar (first-person singular present lamento, first-person singular preterite lamentei, past participle lamentado)^[1] Houaiss records lanentando in the 14th century and lamentavom and lamentar in the 15th.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin lāmentō (“to lament”), a learned word.^[2][3][1] The Late Latin active verb is a collateral form, used in the Vulgate, of classical lāmentor, which is formed from lāmentum (“wailing, lamentation”).^[4][1] Cunha dates the verb to the 16th century in the main text, and his addenda move it back to the 14th.^[5]

The same Latin verb is Spanish lamentar, Galician lamentar, Catalan lamentar, French lamenter and Italian lamentare.^[6][7][1]

Wiktionary derives the Latin noun from Proto-Italic *lāmentom, from an expressive root Proto-Indo-European *leh₂- (“to howl, cry”).^[1] The DHLF calls its origin obscure and a link with Armenian and Greek words for weeping hypothetical.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, of the 14th century, is the gerund lanentando.^[2] Cunha's addenda date both lamentar and lamentação to the 14th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa (1611) and Pereira (1697) translate the verb with Latin words for weeping and beating the breast, and Bluteau (1712) defines it as weeping with cries, adding the reflexive lamentar-se “to complain”.^[9][10][11] Morais (1813) also records lamentar a alguém “to tell one's sorrows to someone”, from Camões.^[12]

Today the sense of loud mourning has faded beside “to regret, to be sorry about”, and the verb is also used for pitying a person.^[13][14] The derivatives lamentação, lamentável and lamento appear in the 16th century.^[5]

Timeline

• 1300s – the gerund lanentando.^[2]
• 1400s – the forms lamentavom and lamentar.^[2]
• 1500s – lamentação, lamentável and lamento are recorded.^[5]
• 1611 – Barbosa's dictionary has the verb.^[9]
• 1711 – lamentando in a private letter.^[15]
• 1712 – Bluteau defines it as “to weep with cries”.^[11]
• 1813 – first record of lamentador and lamentoso.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reflexive) To lament, to mourn with cries, sobs or complaints; to bewail: lamentava a morte do irmão.^[2][16][1]
2. (transitive) To regret, to be sorry about something; to deplore: Lamento o atraso.^[17][14]
3. (transitive) To feel pity for someone.^[13][1]
4. (reflexive) To complain, to bemoan one's lot: lamentar-se da sorte.^[13][2]

Word family

• lamentação
• lamentador
• lamentável
• lamento
• lamentoso

Related words

• Latin lāmentum
• Spanish lamentar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. lamentar
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. lamentar
4. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. lāmento
5. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. lamentar
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. lamentare
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 289
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. lamenter
9. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lamentar
10. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lamentar
11. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lamentar
12. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 202
13. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. lamentar
14. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. lamentar
15. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. lamentar
16. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5562
17. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. lamentar