Word of the Day

: July 27, 2023

plaintive

adjective PLAYN-tiv

What It Means

Something (usually a sound) that is described as plaintive is expressive of sorrow or suffering.

// The plaintive call of the loon, as though it were mourning some bygone age, drifted across the lake.

See the entry >

plaintive in Context

“To the ravishingly plaintive sound of Caetano Veloso singing the fado that gives the film [Strange Way of Life] its title, strummed on guitar and lip-synced by rising Spanish heartthrob Manu Ríos, Silva rides across the desert that separates him from the town of Bitter Creek to reunite, for the first time in 25 years, with Sheriff Jake.” — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 May 2023

Did You Know?

“The people are drifting from door to door / Can’t find no heaven I don’t care where they go.” So sang Nehemiah Curtis “Skip” James on a Depression-era recording of his song “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues.” James’s somber lyrics as well as his otherworldly falsetto and distinctive minor-key fingerpicking may be aptly described by the adjective plaintive—deeply expressive, like much of the blues. Plaintive comes from the Middle English word plaintif, meaning “grieving,” a borrowing from an identical Anglo-French word that itself was formed from the Anglo-French noun plaint, a word meaning “lamentation.” (Plaint was also adopted directly into English to refer to expressions of sorrow, mourning, or regret.) Plaintif is the source too of the familiar legal term plaintiff, which refers to someone who presents a legal action or complaint to a court. But while only some people become plaintiffs, all are capable of plaintiveness, whether in song or just a world-weary sigh.