But lately, moaning has somehow acquired bad connotations.
We had, he moaned, had quite enough pieces about the South Tyroleans and their eccentric German ways.
The excessive, self-imposed suffering and predictable moaning has even acquired a name, courtesy of Debora Spar, author of Wonder Women: Sex, Power, and the Quest for Perfection and president of Barnard College: competitive collapsing.
There's a lurking sense that girls like Dunham don't need feminism – they should all stop moaning – they've never had it so good.
In doughnut shops and fast-food places around town, people were constantly moaning about having missed out on the Big Move.
"People were moaning; you had to get them off the train.
("The chair," one Republican moaned, "has a way of swallowing him up").
A few days later his little moan had attracted 13k retweets, 38k likes and the attention of the national media.
The Daily Mail didn't like it, decrying a "New stealth tax on the middle classes", who would be "unfairly penalised". Could the Mail's moans have anything to do with this sudden "free care" offer?
But, all the same, Ammianus' moans have got quite a lot in common with modern complaints about "benefit scroungers" (and about as little hard logic).
