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lament

  (lə-mĕnt') pronunciation

v., -ment·ed, -ment·ing, -ments.

v.tr.
  1. To express grief for or about; mourn: lament a death.
  2. To regret deeply; deplore: He lamented his thoughtless acts.
v.intr.
  1. To grieve audibly; wail.
  2. To express sorrow or regret. See synonyms at grieve.
n.
  1. A feeling or an expression of grief; a lamentation.
  2. A song or poem expressing deep grief or mourning.

[Middle English lementen, from Old French lamenter, from Latin lāmentārī, from lāmentum, lament.]

lamenter la·ment'er n.
 
 
Thesaurus: lament

verb

    To feel, show, or express grief: grieve, mourn, sorrow, suffer. See happy/unhappy.

 
Antonyms: lament

v

Definition: complain
Antonyms: celebrate, compliment, laud, praise, rejoice


 

Term for a variety of musical and poetic forms related to mourning rites for the dead or ritual leave-taking. The domestic funeral lament, which goes back to antiquity, is still widely practised in some rural areas as an outlet of emotion and as part of the rites of transition. Most domestic laments take the form of alternating cries of grief (the ‘planctus’) and the framing of a message (the ‘discourse’). Laments are normally performed by women, either relatives of the dead person or women of prestige with a talent for keening. Their song usually has a narrow compass, often within five notes.

For particular kinds of lament, see Apothéose; Caoine ; Déploration; Dirge; Dump; Elegy; Lamento; Plainte; Planctus; Tombeau; and Threnody .



 

lament, any poem expressing profound grief or mournful regret for the loss of some person or former state, or for some other misfortune. See also complaint, dirge, elegy, jeremiad, monody, threnody, ubi sunt.

 
Music: Lament

A mournful piece, either meant to be played at a funeral, or to commemorate a death.

 
Wikipedia: lament

A lament or lamentation is a song or poem expressing grief, regret or mourning. Many of the oldest and most lasting poems in human history have been laments. Laments are present in both the Iliad and the Odyssey, in Beowulf, in the Hindu Vedas, and in ancient Near Eastern religious texts, including the Mesopotamian city laments such as the Lament for Ur and the Jewish Tanakh (or Old Testament). In many oral traditions, both early and modern, the lament has been a genre usually performed by women.

Celtic tradition

In the traditional music of Scotland, a lament is also a genre of musical composition for the bagpipes. In Scots Gaelic, these pieces are often called pìobaireachd or pibroch (an Anglicised spelling representing the pronunciation). In form, these slow pieces are a theme and variations, beginning with a slow air (called the urlar) which is played with variations and embellishments; the simple melody returns to finish the piece. These pieces are usually named after a person; traditionally, the person for whom they were composed was a warrior slain in battle.

The traditional lament played at Commonwealth services of remembrance is a solo bagpipe version of Flowers of the Forest.

Musical term

A lament in music is a piece featuring a basso ostinato. Its repeating bass theme contains a descending, typically chromatic figure (often descending from tonic to dominant) in slow triple meter. A good example of this is Henry Purcell's 'When I am laid in earth'.

See also

Bibliography

  • Margaret Alexiou, The ritual lament in Greek tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974.
  • H. Munro Chadwick, Nora Kershaw Chadwick, The growth of literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1932-40), e.g. vol. 2 p. 229.
  • Andrew Dalby, Rediscovering Homer (New York: Norton, 2006. ISBN 0393057887) pp. 141-143.
  • Gail Holst-Warhaft, Dangerous voices: women's laments and Greek literature. London: Routledge, 1992. ISBN 0415121655.
  • Claus Westermann, Praise and Lament in the Psalms. Westminster: John Knox Press, 1981. ISBN 0804217920.

 
Translations: Translations for: Lament

Dansk (Danish)
n. - klage, sørgesang, klagesang, jammerklage
v. tr. - sørge over, begræde, beklage
v. intr. - jamre, klage sig

Nederlands (Dutch)
lamenteren, weeklagen, jammeren, (be)treuren, (be)wenen, weeklacht, klaaglied

Français (French)
n. - lamentation, pleurs, complainte, élégie
v. tr. - se lamenter, gémir, pleurer
v. intr. - se lamenter, gémir, pleurer

Deutsch (German)
v. - klagen
n. - Klage, Klagegesang

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - θρηνώ
n. - θρήνος, μοιρολόι, ελεγεία

Italiano (Italian)
lamentarsi, lamento, elegia funebre

Português (Portuguese)
v. - lamentar
n. - lamento, lamentação

Русский (Russian)
плакать, сетовать, плач, элегия, похоронная песнь

Español (Spanish)
n. - lamento, queja, elegía
v. tr. - llorar, lamentar, deplorar
v. intr. - lamentarse, plañir

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - klaga, jämra (sig), beskärma sig, gråta, beklaga, sörja över
n. - vesaga, klagosång, klagovisa

中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
悲叹, 恸哭, 悔恨, 哀悼

中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 悲歎, 慟哭, 悔恨
v. tr. - 哀悼
v. intr. - 悔恨, 悲歎

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 슬픔, 한탄 , 애가, 푸념
v. tr. - 슬퍼하다, 애석해 하다
v. intr. - 애도하다 , 슬퍼하다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 悲嘆, 哀歌, 悲しみ
v. - 嘆く, 悲しむ, 残念に思う

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) يعول, ينوح, يندب, يرثي, يتفجع (الاسم) عويل, نواح, تفجع, مرثاة‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮זעקה, קינה, בכי‬
v. tr. - ‮קונן‬
v. intr. - ‮התאבל על‬


 
 

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Answers Corporation Antonyms. © 1999-2008 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Music Encyclopedia. The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.  Read more
Literary Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Copyright © Chris Baldick 2001, 2004. All rights reserved.  Read more
Music. © 2003 The Austin Symphony. All Rights Reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Lament" Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

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