different between regret vs bemoan

English

Etymology

From Middle English regretten, from Old French regreter, regrater (“to lament”), from re- (intensive prefix) + *greter, *grater (“to weep”), from Frankish *gr?tan (“to weep, mourn, lament”), from Proto-Germanic *gr?tan? (“to weep”), from Proto-Indo-European *??reh?d- (“to sound”); and Frankish *greutan (“to cry, weep”), from Proto-Germanic *greutan? (“to weep, cry”), from Proto-Indo-European *g?rewd- (“to weep, be sad”), equivalent to re- +? greet. Cognate with Middle High German gr?zan (“to cry”), Old English gr?tan (“to weep, greet”), Old English gr?otan (“to weep, lament”), Old Norse gráta (“to weep, groan”), Gothic ???????????????????????? (gr?tan, “to weep”). More at greet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??????t/, /??????t/, /?i????t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Verb

regret (third-person singular simple present regrets, present participle regretting, simple past and past participle regretted)

1. To feel sorry about (a thing that has or has not happened), afterthink: to wish that a thing had not happened, that something else had happened instead.
2. (more generally) To feel sorry about (any thing).

3. (archaic, transitive) To miss; to feel the loss or absence of.
   • 1845, The Church of England Magazine (volume 19, page 301)

     He more than ever regretted his home, and with increased desire longed to see his family.

Usage notes

• "Regret" is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (the -ing form), except in set phrases with tell, say, and inform, where the to infinitive is used. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

Derived terms

• regretter

Translations

Noun

regret (countable and uncountable, plural regrets)

1. Emotional pain on account of something done or experienced in the past, with a wish that it had been different; a looking back with dissatisfaction or with longing.
   • 1828, Thomas Macaulay, John Dryden

     What man does not remember with regret the first time he read Robinson Crusoe?

   • From its peaceful bosom [the grave] spring none but fond regrets and tender recollections.

2. (obsolete) Dislike; aversion.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dr. H. More to this entry?)

Derived terms

• regretful

Translations

See also

• remorse
• repentance

Further reading

• regret in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• regret in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Etymology

From Middle French regret, from Old French regret (“lamentation, complaint”), deverbal of regreter (“to lament”), from re- (intensive prefix-) +? greter (to weep), from Frankish *grêtan (“to weep, mourn, lament”), from Proto-Germanic *gr?tan? (“to weep”) and Frankish *grêotan (“to cry, weep”), from Proto-Germanic *greutan? (“to weep, cry”), from Proto-Indo-European *ghrew- (“to weep, be sad”). More at regret.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.???/

Noun

regret m (plural regrets)

1. regret
2. nostalgia

Derived terms

Related terms

• regretter

Further reading

• “regret” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Interlingua

Noun

regret (plural regrets)

1. regret, repentance

Related terms

• regrettar
• regrettabile

Romanian

Etymology

From French regret.

Noun

regret n (plural regrete)

1. regret

Declension

English

Etymology

From Middle English bemenen, bimenen, from Old English bem?nan (“to bemoan, bewail, lament”); equivalent to be- (“about, concerning”) +? moan. Alteration of vowel from Middle to Modern English due to analogy with moan.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /b??m??n/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /b??mo?n/
• Rhymes: -??n
• Hyphenation: be?moan

Verb

bemoan (third-person singular simple present bemoans, present participle bemoaning, simple past and past participle bemoaned)

1. (transitive) To moan or complain about (something).

   Synonyms: bewail, lament, mourn

   • 1577, Raphael Holinshed, The Chronicles of England, Scotlande and Irelande, London: John Hunne, “King Richard the seconde,” p. 1075^[1]:

     The losse of this erle was greatly bemoned by men of al degrees, for he was liberal, gentle, humble, and curteous to eche one […]

   • 1855, Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South, Chapter 1^[2]:

     […] after deliberately marrying General Shaw with no warmer feeling than respect for his character and establishment, [she] was constantly, though quietly, bemoaning her hard lot in being united to one whom she could not love.

   • 1957, Muriel Spark, The Comforters, New York: Avon, 1965, Chapter 7, p. 155^[3]:

     “I am sure you are better off without Mr. Hogg,” Helena would say often when Georgina bemoaned her husband’s desertion.

   • 2004, Andrea Levy, Small Island, London: Review, Chapter Nine, p. 112^[4]:

     He’d have told that horrible sister of his that more coloureds had just turned up. How many is it now? they’d have said to each other. Fifty? Sixty? ‘You’ll have to speak to her, Cyril,’ she’d have told him, before bemoaning how respectable this street was before they came.

2. (transitive, reflexive) To be dismayed or worried about (someone), particularly because of their situation or what has happened to them.
   • c. 1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3, Act II scene v^[5]:

     Son. Was ever son so rued a father’s death?

     Father. Was ever father so bemoan’d his son?

   • 1640, George Abbot, The Whole Booke of Iob Paraphrased, London, Chapter 6, verse 12, pp. 40-41^[6]:

     Sure you take mee not to be made of flesh, or if so, yet not to be sensible that thinke me able to beare these burthens without bemoning my selfe.

   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter 28^[7]:

     My rest might have been blissful enough, only a sad heart broke it. […] It trembled for Mr. Rochester and his doom; it bemoaned him with bitter pity […]

   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 563:

     […] So we cried to him, "O Rais, what is the matter?"; and he replied saying, "Seek ye deliverance of the Most High from the strait into which we have fallen and bemoan yourselves and take leave of one another; for know that the wind hath gotten the mastery of us and hath driven us into the uttermost of the seas of the world."

   • 1987, Tanith Lee, “Children of the Night” in Night’s Sorceries, Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, p. 396^[8]:

     “He is come to the town in order to marry a hapless maiden. The lady must be bemoaned.”

Derived terms

• bemoaner
• bemoaning
• bemoaningly
• forebemoaned

Translations

Anagrams

• Beamon, on-beam, onbeam