Which is the corect verb?

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My daughter was frightened by the darkness. "Help! Mummy," she wailed/whined loudly.

Which verb should I use?

Thanks.

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@tanguatlay,

I would use wailed, tanguatlay. "Whined" sounds too petulant.

1 Reply

@Letty,

Letty is absolutely right. I would use "wailed", too, unless I intended to convey that the child was over-reacting and being too infantile.

In common use, if we say that a human is "whining", [dogs whine, but they can't help it] we are making a judgement - we are implying that the utterance is persistent, annoying, excessive and silly, that the complaint or protest is trivial or childish, that the whiner is making too much of a fuss, that they ought to have kept their mouth shut. "Wailing", on the other hand, is merely descriptive of high-pitched sustained unhappy crying out.

Brave people accept their fate, cowards whine about it.

1 Reply

Yes, but is a wail verbalised? I wouldn't have thought so.

1 Reply

@McTag,

McTag wrote:

Yes, but is a wail verbalised? I wouldn't have thought so.

Of course: wailing is not just non-verbal moaning or keening. The verb can be used to describe certain ways of speaking or singing.

Quote:

She wailed aloud in her pain: "Oh, my boy! My little boy! ... She wailed again, and my father could not look at her but buried his face in his hands.

Lost in the Labyrinth (Patrice Kindl 2005)

Quote:

"Without my ceeeegarettes," she wailed, "I can have no fun."

Article about people giving up smoking in "The Independent" (UK)

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@contrex,

Quote:

I would use "wailed", too, unless

Clearly, unless is the operative word.

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@JTT,

Quote:

Clearly, unless is the operative word.

I am surprised that you thought that needed emphasising...

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What mood was she in? 'Wailed' assumes that she was in desperation and deeply upset, at the end of her tether. 'Whined' confers an attitude of complaint. Without more definition of the context, it is difficult to be any more accurate.

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@ColinM,

I mean how frigthened was she? Was it momentary, or had her sense of being frightened and experiencing being frightened culminated after several hours into this ecpression?

1 Reply

@ColinM,

People whine when they want something, not when they are frightened.

1 Reply

@contrex,

Quote:

People whine when they want something, not when they are frightened.

The word 'whine' holds both meanings, Contrex. A frightened child could certainly whine.

Quote:

M-W
whine
1 a: to utter a high-pitched plaintive or distressed cry b: to make a sound similar to such a cry <the wind whined in the chimney>
2: to complain with or as if with a whine <always whining about the weather>
3: to move or proceed with the sound of a whine <the bullet whined…across the ice " Berton Roueché>

1 Reply

@JTT,

Your definition no. 2 confirms my assertion that whining is annoying persistent complaint.

1 Reply

@contrex,

Your reply leads me to the belief that you're unable to discern nuance, Contrex.

1 Reply

@JTT,

Your reply leads me to the belief that you are convinced of your own cleverness, JTT. In my locale (UK) "whining" is considered irritating.

1 Reply

@contrex,

Your reply confirms that you can't grasp nuance, Contrex. 'whining', as you stubbornly envision it and cling to the same, despite evidence to the contrary, could be a different nuance than that found in the original question.

Quote:

OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY
noun 1 a long, high-pitched complaining cry. 2 a long, high-pitched unpleasant sound. 3 a feeble or petulant complaint.

• verb 1 give or make a whine. 2 complain in a feeble or petulant way.

http://www.askoxford.com/results/?view=dict&freesearch=whine&branch=13842570&textsearchtype=exact

[emphasis is mine]

1 Reply

@JTT,

JTT wrote:

'whining', as you stubbornly envision it and cling to the same, despite evidence to the contrary, could be a different nuance than that found in the original question.

That's as maybe; I was actually, (eccentric though it may seem!) "envisioning"* the meaning contained in the original question, and answering that question.

*American affected grandiosity.

1 Reply

@contrex,

I apologise for the tone of my previous couple of posts; I think my time would have been better employed explaining why I put forward the opinion that I did. In my particular linguistic milieu, (Southern) England, "whining" may have a connotation of annoyance or impatience or fatigue on the part of the listener. Of course a bullet may whine as it passes, or a jet engine as its turbine revolves, or a power saw as it cuts through wood, but if I tell a parent that I heard their child "whining" in the night, they may well conclude that I was being unsympathetic, that I thought that the little creature ought to shut up and go back to sleep. On the other hand, if I used the word "wailing", no such implication exists. I just heard the child voicing distress. Thus whining is a particular kind of wailing. That, to me, is the very essence of "nuance". It is like arguing over whether "damp" or "wet" mean the same. Broadly they do; but if you want to preserve a distinction, a nuance, between slightly wet and just plain wet to an unspecified degree, then it is good to be discriminating about their possible meanings.

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@contrex,

Quote:

they may well conclude that I was being unsympathetic,

There's no doubt that they may well do so, Contrex. 'may well' leaves a lot of room for other conclusions, which is, in essence, nuance.

Quote:

if I used the word "wailing", no such implication exists.

I don't agree, in the sense that you can be so definite. I agree overall, that 'whine' leans more heavily to petulance, but as you've noted, it doesn't necessarily need to. If it did, there wouldn't be entries for that particular nuance in dictionaries.

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Which is the corect verb?

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