This verb originally meant to raise the battle cry, then expanded to loud shouting in orgiastic rites, and finally to any loud crying or wailing. Mark 5:38 describes the scene at Jairus's house where people were ἀλαλάζοντας—wailing loudly—over the dead girl. In 1 Corinthians 13:1, Paul says speaking without love makes him like a noisy gong or κύμβαλον ἀλαλάζον—a clanging cymbal. The semantic range spans from martial war cries to ritual ecstatic shouts to funeral laments to mere noise, united by the idea of loud, often inarticulate sound.