Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1960 (SND Vol. V).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
LAMENT, v., n. Sc. usages:
I. v. Of certain sea-birds: see quot.Sh. 1866 Zoologist (Ser. 2) I. 476:
At this season they [Redthroated Diver] frequently utter a peculiar laughing cry, oddly termed “lamenting” by the fishermen of this neighbourhood.
II. n. A song commemorating a death, an elegy, a dirge; an air to which such a song is sung or played, esp. in the Highlands on the bagpipes [translating Gael. cumha, id.], found in the titles of elegiac poems and of tunes, as My Lady Errol's Lament, towards the end of the 17th c. (see W. Dauney Ancient Sc. Melodies 143 ff.).w.Sc. 1698 M. Martin St Kilda 112:
Upon those Occasions [they] make doleful Songs, which they call Laments.Ayr. 1791 Burns Poetry (Cent. ed.) I. Titles:
Lament for James Earl of Glencairn. Lament of Mary Queen of Scots.Sc. 1815 E. Burt Letters II. 189:
The [funeral] dance, accompanied by a solemn melancholy strain called a lament, is begun by the nearest relatives.Sc. 1831 J. Logan Sc. Gael (1876) II. 246:
The Cumhadh, or Lament, otherwise called the Coronach, was an elegy composed on the death or misfortunes of any celebrated individual. It partook, in some degree, of the song of praise, for it extolled the virtues of the individual . . . These compositions were anciently repeated at funerals, but they have given way to the music of the bag-pipe, the tune only being now played.Sc. 1900 D. Mitchell Hist. Highl. 668:
Besides marches and quicksteps, pipe music comprises piobaireachd, which included gatherings, salutes and laments.Sc. 1957 Scottish Studies I. 117:
The forms peculiar to the laments disappeared and the more elevated style of the elegy took its place . . . The most noticeable single feature of the Lament is its greater personal nature.
