Meanings
present singular third person bemourns · participle present bemourning · participle past bemourned · past bemourned
- raretransitiveTo weep or mourn over.
From the neighbouring settlements and valleys an immense concourse of people collected to bemourn the death of the arii, the Chiefly ladies bleeding themselves more as a matter of form than from grief or real sentiment, […]
1974, Douglas L. Oliver, Ancient Tahitian SocietySynonyms: begrieve, bewail, mourn, afterthink, becry, begrieve, bemoan, bewail
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo weep or mourn over.
Origin
- Old Englishbemurnan“to mourn, bewail, deplore, be sorry for, care for, take heed for”
- Middle Englishbemornen
- Englishbemourn
From Middle English bemornen, from Old English bemurnan (“to mourn, bewail, deplore, be sorry for, care for, take heed for”), equivalent to be- (“over, about”) + mourn. Cognate with Old Saxon bimornian (“to bemourn”).
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
bemourn. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bemourn
“bemourn.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bemourn. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bemourn,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bemourn.
Source: bemourn on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.