Word of the Day
Monday, July 07, 2003
1.
An expression of sorrow; lamentation.
Quotes:
. . .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
Origin:
Plaint comes from Old French plainte, from Latin planctus, past participle of plangere, "to strike the breast, to lament."
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