Other forms: bemoaned, bemoaning, bemoans
To bemoan is to complain sadly about something. Bemoan the state of the roads.
It suggests complaint without any expectation of change, which is why it sounds weary. To bemoan something is nearly always done to somebody who agrees already.
1verbbemoanTo complain sadly about something.
“They would bemoan the timetable and use it every day.”
bemoan is a complaining.
Old English bemaenan is be- plus moan, and has kept its sense for a thousand years.
Old English
bemǣnan — to bemoan, bewail, lament
Middle English
bemenen
English, today
bemoan
From Middle English bemenen, bimenen, from Old English bemǣnan (“to bemoan, bewail, lament”); equivalent to be- + moan. Alteration of vowel from Middle to Modern English due to analogy with moan.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA