Compleynte

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A formal statement or petition expressing displeasure, injury, or discontent about something done or left undone
2. An authoritative written or oral account of a grievance lodged against a person or situation seeking redress
3. A formal utterance or document in which someone sets forth their grievance or objection to some matter

Etymology: Before it meant a grievance, this word named a kind of poem. Its Old French source, "complainte," referred to a sorrowful song or poem of lament, and medieval writers used the form to mourn the dead or to plead with a lover who had turned cold. Middle English poets borrowed the term in this spelling, and it was often used in titles for such laments. The word comes from Latin "complangere," meaning to lament together or to beat the breast in grief. It combines "com-," an intensifying prefix, with "plangere," to strike or to wail. The sense of loud, shared mourning lies beneath the word's later meanings. Over time the emphasis moved from singing a lament to voicing a grievance. The modern "complaint" keeps the sense of expressing dissatisfaction, while the poetic genre faded from everyday use.