lamentum

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *lāmentom, from Proto-Indo-European *leh₂- (expressive root։ to howl, cry, bark).^[1] Cognate with lātrō, Ancient Greek λῆρος (lêros), λάλος (lálos), λάσκω (láskō).

Noun

lāmentum n (genitive lāmentī); second declension

1. wailing, moaning, weeping, crying, shrieking
2. lamentation, lament
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.667–668:

     Lāmentīs gemitūque et fēmineō ululātū / tēcta fremunt [...].

     The homes [of Carthage] howl with laments, sorrow, and women’s wailing.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	lāmentum	lāmenta
Genitive	lāmentī	lāmentōrum
Dative	lāmentō	lāmentīs
Accusative	lāmentum	lāmenta
Ablative	lāmentō	lāmentīs
Vocative	lāmentum	lāmenta

Derived terms

• lāmentō

Descendants

• Catalan: lament
• English: lament
• Galician: lamento
• Italian: lamento
• Polish: lament
• Portuguese: lamento
• Spanish: lamento

References

• “lamentum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “lamentum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• lamentum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• lamentum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

1. De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “lāmenta, -ōrum”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 324-5