Yowl

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. To produce a prolonged, mournful sound often connected to suffering or the expression of distress
2. To emit a loud and piercing cry that signifies a state of pain or deep emotional turmoil
3. To let out a loud, grief-filled cry often linked with suffering or sorrow

Etymology: "Yowl" came into English from Old Norse, not from anything Old English. Its Middle English forms were "youlen" and "goulen," borrowed from "gaula," a Norse verb meaning to low, bellow, or howl. Related forms survive across the North Germanic and northern British languages: Icelandic "gaula" still means to yell or roar, Norwegian "gaule" means to weep noisily, and Scots "gowl" means to howl. The verb's home is the northern and Scandinavian world, which is why it sounds so unlike the Latinate vocabulary of mourning that English later picked up. The initial "y" is a little puzzling. It may have been shaped by the Middle English verb "yollen" or "yellen," meaning to yell, and the two words likely blurred together in speech. The result is a word whose sound seems to imitate the cry it names, though its ancestry lies in a Norse verb for bellowing animals.

Synonyms: howl, wail, cry

Antonyms: silence