As a verb: to cry out loudly in grief or pain; as a noun: loud, mournful cries or sounds.
From Old Norse 'vál' meaning 'misery' or 'woe,' which entered English around the 14th century. The word originally emphasized the mournful, sorrowful quality of the sound.
Musicians borrowed 'wailing' from funeral practices—when you hear someone 'wail' on a guitar or saxophone, you're using the same word that originally described the anguished cries at a funeral, just applied to sound!
Wailing has been stereotyped as hysterical feminine grief since antiquity, delegitimizing women's emotional expression and pain as theatrical rather than genuine.
Use neutrally for any person expressing intense emotion. Avoid gendered pairing with 'hysterical' or implications that wailing is weakness or performance.
["cries out","mourns loudly","expresses anguish"]
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