wailer
(ˈweɪlə(r))
[f. wail v. + -er1.]
One who wails; spec. a professional mourner.
| 1647 Hexham i, A wailer or bewailer, een kermer. 1822 Scott Peveril xlvii, Those dangers from which the poor blushing wailers of my sex shrink. 1851 G. W. Curtis Nile Notes xii. 54 Before us a funeral procession was moving to the tombs, and the shrill melancholy cry of the wailers rang fitfully. 1877 A. B. Edwards Up Nile xix. 524 A funeral with a train of wailers goes out presently towards the burial-ground. 1915 19th Cent. Nov. 1147 These ‘howls’ have been practised from childhood; they are led in chorus by a professional ‘wailer’. |
Hence † ˈwaileress, a female wailer.
| 1388 Wyclif Jer. ix. 17 Clepe ȝe wymmen that weilen [v.r. weileressis]. |