Word of the Day Archive
Monday July 7, 2003
plaint \PLAYNT\ , noun:
1. An expression of sorrow; lamentation.
2. A complaint.
. . .that soul imprisoned in a body, itself a prisoner within that dungeon, and from out that double incarnation of flesh and stone, the perpetual plaint of a soul in agony . . ..
-- Victor Hugo, Notre Dame de Paris
He turns to the audience and offers the plaint of any 86-year-old whose royalties from records and guitar sales keep accumulating while the energy level keeps dissipating. 'I can get anything I want,' he says. 'It's just, what am I gonna do when I get it?'
-- Richard Corliss, "That Old Feeling: Les Is More", Time, June 22, 2001
Despite the famous plaint that science and the humanities are separated by an abyss of mutual ignorance, made by the late novelist-scientist C.P. Snow, the arts and the sciences are, indeed, mutually involved.
-- Peter Goodman, "Science in Art's DNA", Newsday, June 27, 2003
Plaint comes from Old French plainte, from Latin planctus, past participle of plangere, "to strike the breast, to lament."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for plaint
