plangent

English

WOTD – 15 May 2012

Etymology

From Latin plangēns, present participle of plangō (“I beat; I lament”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈplænd͡ʒənt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ændʒənt

Adjective

plangent (comparative more plangent, superlative most plangent)

1. Having a loud, mournful sound.
   • 1879, Robert Louis Stevenson, “chapter 1”, in The Story of a Lie:

     [S]how him a refined or powerful face, let him hear a plangent or a penetrating voice […] and his mind was instantaneously awakened.

   • 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth (Duckworth hardback), page 49:

     Since mid-day their plangent, disquieting cries had foretold its approach.

   • 2013 Sept. 22, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, “Music Review: A Middle East Mourned and Celebrated in Suites”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     In the lament about the massacre — the work’s second movement — he entered a more urgent register in the high reaches of the cello, but the sense of grief was more plangent than raw, devoid of any real outrage.

2. (rare) Beating, dashing, as waves.
   • 1922, Clark Ashton Smith, Desire of Vastness:

     What central sea with plume-plucked midnight strewn,
     Plangent to what enormous plenilune
     That lifts in silence, hinderless and stark?

Related terms

• plangency
• plangently

Translations

having a loud mournful sound

• Bulgarian: ечащ (bg) (ečašt), кънтящ (bg) (kǎntjašt)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 淒厲／凄厉 (zh) (qīlì)

• Dutch: luidklagend, huilend (nl), klaaglijk (nl)
• Finnish: moikaava
• French: retentissant (fr)
• German: klagend (de)
• Italian: risonante (it), fragoroso (it), lamentoso (it), sonoro (it), rumoroso (it)
• Japanese: 哀調を帯びる (あいちょうをおびる, aichou wo obiru)
• Korean: 통탄(痛歎)하다 (tongtanhada), 상차(傷嗟)하다 (sangchahada), 호천통곡(呼天痛哭)하다 (hocheontonggokhada)
• Portuguese: plangente (pt)
• Russian: зауны́вный (ru) m (zaunývnyj)
• Spanish: plañidero (es), quejumbroso (es), triste (es), consternado (es)
• Swedish: dånande (sv), brusande (sv), klagande (sv), genljudande (sv)

Latin

Verb

plangent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of plangō