Moans

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A sound made by a person that conveys either pain or pleasure, often characterized by a prolonged quality and emotional intensity
2. The act of producing a sorrowful or pleasurable noise that communicates feelings of distress or ecstasy in a drawn-out manner
3. Vocal sounds uttered to show pain or unhappiness ; vocal noises produced to indicate contentment or enjoyment

Etymology: "Moans" is the third-person singular form of the verb "moan", so its story is really the story of the verb. "Moan" comes from Middle English "mone", "mane" or "mān", which descends from Old English "mǣnan", meaning "to complain over, grieve, mourn". That Old English verb is the clue to the word's older sense: a moan was first a lament for the dead or a grievance voiced aloud, not the sound of a person in pain. The noun and verb trace back further to a Proto-Germanic root, "mainō", meaning "opinion" or "mind". Cognates in Old Frisian and Old High German share that sense of "opinion", so the link between holding a view and voicing a complaint is a Germanic one. Modern English kept the grief-and-complaint meaning and extended it, so the sound can now signal contentment as well as distress.

Synonyms: groans, whines, complaints, grumbles

Antonyms: cheers, shouts