plangent

English

WOTD – 15 May 2012

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

plangent (comparative more plangent, superlative most plangent)

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 edition edition, 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:
  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.
(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?

having a loud mournful sound

Bulgarian: ечащ (bg) (ečašt), кънтящ (bg) (kǎntjašt)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 凄厉, 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)

plangent