different between wail vs bemoan

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

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