Keening
The traditional Irish ritual lament for the dead - a prolonged wailing, sung or chanted, at wakes and at the graveside. As a verb: 'she keened for her husband all the way home from the church'. As a noun: 'the keening went on through the night'.
Etymology
From Irish 'caoin' (to lament, to wail), itself from Old Irish 'cáinid' meaning to bewail. The Hiberno-English form 'keen' / 'keening' preserves the Irish vowel and meaning intact. Distinct entirely from the homophone 'keen' meaning eager or sharp, which is from Old English 'cēne' and unrelated.
In a sentence
"You could hear her keening from the house, even with the rain."
Historical notes
Keening was a formal social role in pre-twentieth-century Ireland: the bean chaointe, the keening woman, was hired or expected at funerals to perform the lament. The Catholic Church discouraged the practice from the nineteenth century onwards as un-Christian display, and by the mid-twentieth century the formal tradition had largely faded. The word survives in English where the practice does not - Neil Gaiman reaches for it in 2017 ('she keened for her husband, who would never come back to her') with no Irish context but with the right tonal weight.
Sources
- Oxford English Dictionary, entry keen v.² (to lament). · dictionary
- Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla (Ó Dónaill), entry caoin. · dictionary