lamentation

English

Beweinung Christi (Lamentation of Christ, 1509) by German painter Bernhard Strigel. The lamentation of Christ is a common subject in Christian art, and shows Jesus being mourned by his family and friends after his crucifixion and descent from the Cross.

Etymology

Recorded since 1375, from Latin lāmentātiō (“wailing, moaning, weeping”), from the deponent verb lāmentor, from lāmentum (“wail; wailing”), itself from a Proto-Indo-European *la- (“to shout, cry”), presumed ultimately imitative. Replaced Old English cwiþan. Lament is a 16th-century back-formation.

Pronunciation

  • (UK, US) IPA(key): /ˌlæm.ɛnˈteɪ.ʃən/, /ˌlæm.ɪnˈteɪ.ʃən/
  • Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

lamentation (countable and uncountable, plural lamentations)

  1. The act of lamenting.
  2. A sorrowful cry; a lament.
  3. Specifically, mourning.
  4. lamentatio, (part of) a liturgical Bible text (from the book of Job) and its musical settings, usually in the plural; hence, any dirge
  5. A group of swans.

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

References

  • “lamentation” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2018.

French

Etymology

From Middle French, from Latin lāmentātiō (“wailing, moaning, weeping”).

Noun

lamentation f (plural lamentations)

  1. lamentation, loud/ostentatious plaint

Further reading

Middle French

Etymology

From Latin lāmentātiō (“wailing, moaning, weeping”).

Noun

lamentation f (plural lamentations)

  1. lamentation, loud/ostentatious plaint
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