[a. F. lamentation or ad. L. lāmentātiōn-em, n. of action f. lāmentārī to LAMENT.] The action of lamenting; the passionate or demonstrative expression of grief; mourning; in weakened sense, regret.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XX. 282. The lamentacioune … That thai folk for thair lord maid.
1382. Wyclif, Luke vii. 32. We han maad lamentacioun, and ȝe han not wept.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 7156. Myche weping & wo,… And lamentacioun full long for loue of hym one.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, xxxv. 110. They all made gret lamentasyon for his departyng.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. lxxvii. 64. Their prestes were slayne … and there were no wyddowes to make lamentacion.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, I. i. 64. Moderate lamentation is right of the dead, excessiue greefe the enemie to the liuing.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 579. Cocytus, nam’d of lamentation loud Heard on the ruful stream.
1819. Shelley, Cenci, IV. i. 185. There shall be lamentation heard in Heaven As o’er an angel fallen.
1850. McCosh, Div. Govt., III. iii. (1874), 435. Another subject of general lamentation is the evil produced by party spirit.
attrib. 1817. Cobbett, Pol. Reg., XXXII. 122. The Morning Chronicle … treated the town with some neat lamentation puffs.
b. An instance of this; a lament. The Lamentations of Jeremiah, or, shortly, Lamentations [Vulg. Lamentationes, LXX. Θρῆνοι]: the title of one of the poetical books of the Old Testament, traditionally ascribed to the prophet Jeremiah, and having for its subject the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans.
1382. Wyclif, 2 Chron. xxxv. 25. As lawe it is hadde in Irael, Loo! it is told writen in the Lamentaciouns.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, lv. 189. He caused his Nephew to be buryed with sore wepynges and lamentacyons.
1535. Coverdale, Jer. xlviii. 5. At the goinge vp vnto Luhith there shall arise a lamentacion.
1611. Bible, Ezek. xix. 1. Take thou vp a lamentation for the princes of Israel.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 87. A sad lamentation and howling.
1836. W. Irving, Astoria, II. 45. The lamentations of women who had lost some relative in the foray.
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 110. I will call it the House of Lamentations.
1855. Kingsley, Heroes, Theseus, II. 237. A great lamentation arose throughout the city.
c. Eccl. One of the lessons (taken from Lamentations) in the office of Tenebræ.
1853. Dale, trans. Baldeschi’s Ceremonial, 185. The latter having made a genuflection to the Altar, and a reverence to the choir, sings the Lamentation, without asking the Benediction.
Hence Lamentational a.
1827. Bentham, Wks. (1838–43), X. 61. Half lamentational, hall congratulational, rhythmical commonplaces.
