Plangent adds power to our poetry and prose: the pounding of
waves, the beat of wings, the tolling of a bell, the throbbing of the
human heart, a lover's knocking at the door—all have been described as
plangent. The word
plangent traces back to the Latin verb
plangere,
which has two meanings. The first of those meanings, "to strike or
beat," was sometimes used by Latin speakers in
reference to striking
one's breast in grief. This, in turn, led to the verb's second meaning:
"to lament." The sense division carried over to the Latin adjective
plangens and then into English, giving us the two distinct meanings of
plangent: "pounding" and "expressive of melancholy."
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