bemoan

Etymology

From Middle English bemenen, bimenen, from Old English bemǣnan (“to bemoan, bewail, lament”); equivalent to be- (“about, concerning”) + moan. Alteration of vowel from Middle to Modern English due to analogy with moan.

verb

1. (transitive) To moan or complain about (something).
   He bemoaned the drought but went on watering his lawn.
   The losse of this erle was greatly bemoned by men of al degrees, for he was liberal, gentle, humble, and curteous to eche one […] 1577, Raphael Holinshed, “King Richard the seconde”, in The Chronicles of England, Scotlande and Irelande, London: John Hunne, page 1075
   […] after deliberately marrying General Shaw with no warmer feeling than respect for his character and establishment, [she] was constantly, though quietly, bemoaning her hard lot in being united to one whom she could not love. 1855, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 1, in North and South
   “I am sure you are better off without Mr. Hogg,” Helena would say often when Georgina bemoaned her husband’s desertion. 1957, Muriel Spark, chapter 7, in The Comforters, New York: Avon, published 1965, page 155
   He’d have told that horrible sister of his that more coloureds had just turned up. How many is it now? they’d have said to each other. Fifty? Sixty? ‘You’ll have to speak to her, Cyril,’ she’d have told him, before bemoaning how respectable this street was before they came. 2004, Andrea Levy, chapter 9, in Small Island, London: Review, page 112
2. (transitive, reflexive) To be dismayed or worried about (someone), particularly because of their situation or what has happened to them.
   Sure you take mee not to be made of flesh, or if so, yet not to be sensible that thinke me able to beare these burthens without bemoning my selfe. 1640, George Abbot, The Whole Booke of Iob Paraphrased, London, Chapter 6, verse 12, pp. 40-41
   […]So we cried to him, "O Rais, what is the matter?"; and he replied saying, "Seek ye deliverance of the Most High from the strait into which we have fallen and bemoan yourselves and take leave of one another; for know that the wind hath gotten the mastery of us and hath driven us into the uttermost of the seas of the world." 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 563
   He is come to the town in order to marry a hapless maiden. The lady must be bemoaned. 1987, Tanith Lee, “Children of the Night”, in Night’s Sorceries, Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, page 396