lament

A lament is a passionate expression of grief, sorrow, or mourning. In literature and the performing arts, the term refers to works or passages that articulate loss, often in a somber or elegiac tone. Laments may take the form of poems, songs, chanted verses, or musical pieces designed to evoke sorrow.

Etymology: The word comes from Latin lamentum, from plangere "to strike the breast" or "to bewail," entering English via Old French lamenter. The noun lament can denote the act of lamenting, a lamentation, or a specific lament piece, while related terms include elegy, dirge, and threnody.

In literature, laments appear across cultures and periods. In ancient Hebrew poetry the Lamentations of Jeremiah expresses collective sorrow after Jerusalem's fall; Greek and Latin poets composed laments for individuals and cities. Laments are often distinguished by formal address to the deceased, the divine, or the audience, and by communal dimensions.

In music and performance, a lament can be melodic or spoken. Medieval and Baroque laments developed explicit forms, including funeral laments and the lament bass, a descending ground bass signaling sorrow. Laments persist in modern genres as ballads or songs of loss, and many cultures maintain ritual lament practices during mourning.

As a verb, lament means to mourn or regret deeply: "to lament the loss of a loved one." The noun can describe both the act and its result, and the term appears in phrases such as lamentation and lamentable, referring to conditions or events that provoke sorrow.