vagitusn.
/vəˈdʒʌɪtəs/ A cry or wail; spec. that of a new-born child.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > voice or vocal sound > cry or shout (loudness) > cry of emotion or pain > [noun] > wail or howl
yowlinga1225
yei?a1289
yollinga1300
howling1490
yowl?a1513
yawling1568
blayinga1586
whewling1609
howla1616
vagitusa1651
ululation?1799
gowl1805
waul1856
wow1862
whoo1891
blarting1898
ululance1951
a1651 N. Culverwell White Stone in Elegant Disc. Light of Nature (1652) ii. 119 Thou hast not yet the strength of a well grown Christian; well, but is there the vagitus of an Infant?
1825 R. Hooper Lexicon Medicum (ed. 5) 1237/1 Vagitus, the cry of young children; also the distressing cry of persons under surgical operations.
1921 19th Cent. July 28 The various inspired articles..hardly went beyond the vagitus, the earliest cry of the new-born method.
1938 S. Beckett Murphy v. 71 To go back no further than the vagitus, it had not been the proper A of international concert pitch,..but the double flat of this.
1957 V. Nabokov Pnin ii. 47 He actually seemed to forehear the babe's vagitus.
1977 A. Sheridan tr. J. Lacan Écrits iii. 31 My speech was to be nothing more than a vagitus, an infantile cry.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
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n.a1651