different between uproar vs wail

English

Etymology

Calque of Dutch oproer or German Aufruhr. Possibly influenced by roar.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??p???/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??p????/

Noun

uproar (countable and uncountable, plural uproars)

1. Tumultuous, noisy excitement. [from 1520s]
2. Loud confused noise, especially when coming from several sources.
3. A loud protest, controversy, outrage

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:commotion

Derived terms

• uproarious
• uproarish

Translations

Verb

uproar (third-person singular simple present uproars, present participle uproaring, simple past and past participle uproared)

1. (transitive) To throw into uproar or confusion.
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act IV, Scene 3,^[1]

     […] had I power, I should

     Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,

     Uproar the universal peace, confound

     All unity on earth.

2. (intransitive) To make an uproar.
   • 1661, William Caton, The Abridgment of Eusebius Pamphilius’s Ecclesiastical History, London: Francis Holden, 1698, Part II, p. 110, note,^[2]

     […] through their Tumultuous Uproaring have they caused the peaceable and harmless to suffer […]

   • 1824, Thomas Carlyle (translator), Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship and Travels by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, New York: A.L. Burt, 1839, Book 4, Chapter 8, pp. 210-211,^[3]

     […] the landlady entering at this very time with news that his wife had been delivered of a dead child, he yielded to the most furious ebullitions; while, in accordance with him, all howled and shrieked, and bellowed and uproared, with double vigor.

   • 1828, Robert Montgomery, The Omnipresence of the Deity, London: Samuel Maunder, Part II, p. 56,^[4]

     When red-mouth’d cannons to the clouds uproar,

     And gasping hosts sleep shrouded in their gore,

   • 1829, Mason Locke Weems, The Life of General Francis Marion, Philadelphia: Joseph Allen, Chapter 12, p. 106,^[5]

     Officers, as well as men, now mingle in the uproaring strife, and snatching the weapons of the slain, swell the horrid carnage.

Translations

References

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: w?l, IPA^(key): /we?l/, [we??]
• Rhymes: -e?l
• Homophone: wale
• Homophone: whale (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Etymology 1

c. 1300, Middle English weilen, waylen (“to sob, cry, wail”), from Old Norse væla (“to wail”), from væ, vei (“woe”), from Proto-Germanic *wai (whence also Old English w? (“woe”) (English woe)), from Proto-Indo-European *wai.

The verb is first attested in the intransitive sense; the transitive sense developed in mid-14^th c.. The noun came from the verb.

Verb

wail (third-person singular simple present wails, present participle wailing, simple past and past participle wailed)

1. (intransitive) To cry out, as in sorrow or anguish.
2. (intransitive) To weep, lament persistently or bitterly.
3. (intransitive) To make a noise like mourning or crying.

4. (transitive) To lament; to bewail; to grieve over.
5. (slang, music) To perform with great liveliness and force.

Derived terms

• bewail
• wailer
• wailingly

Translations

Noun

wail (plural wails)

1. A prolonged cry, usually high-pitched, especially as of grief or anguish. [from 15^th c.]

2. Any similar sound as of lamentation; a howl.

3. A sound made by emergency vehicle sirens, contrasted with "yelp" which is higher-pitched and faster.

Translations

References

Etymology 2

From Old Norse val (“choice”). Compare Icelandic velja (“to choose”). More at wale.

Verb

wail (third-person singular simple present wails, present participle wailing, simple past and past participle wailed)

1. (obsolete) Synonym of wale (“to choose; to select”)
   • c. 1500, Robert Henryson, Template:The Testament of Cresseid

     Wailed wine and metes

References

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

Anagrams

• wali, wila, w?li

Asilulu

Noun

wail

1. water

References

• James T. Collins, The Historical Relationships of the Languages of Central Maluku, Indonesia (1983), page 70

Cebuano

Etymology

Blend of wala (“not”) +? ilhi (“known, recognized”)

Pronunciation

• (General Cebuano) IPA^(key): /?wa?il?/
• Rhymes: -il?
• Hyphenation: wa?il

Noun

wail

1. an insignificant person
2. an unknown person or thing
3. an unknown celebrity or politician