lamentation

Etymology

First recorded in 1375, the word came into English as Middle English lamentacioun, from Middle French lamentation, whose own source was Latin lāmentātiō ("wailing, moaning, weeping"). That in turn came from the deponent verb lāmentor, from lāmentum ("wail; wailing"), itself from a Proto-Indo-European root *leh₂- ("to howl"), thought to be imitative in origin. It replaced the Old English word cwiþan. Taken apart at face value, it splits into lament and -ation.