plan·gent
/ˈplanjənt/
adjective
LITERARY
(of a sound) loud, reverberating, and often melancholy. “the plangent sound of a harpsichord”
[H is for Hawk — Helen Macdonald]
Lexicon
n. (pl. plectra)
- A small instrument of ivory, wood, metal, or quill, used in playing upon the lyre and other stringed instruments (a pick)
[Robin Robertson — “By Clachan Bridge”]
n.
- a bishop or other high ecclesiastical dignitary
[“To Go to Lvov” — Adam Zagajewski, translated by Renata Gorczynski]
v.
- promote or make widely known (an idea or cause)
Also: promulgation (n.)
[The Anthologist — Nicholson Baker]
verb [with object]
win or regain the favor of (a god, spirit, or person) by doing something that pleases them: the pagans thought it was important to propitiate the gods with sacrifices.
[The Iliad of Homer – Trans. Richmond Lattimore]
adjective
having or encouraging an excessive interest in sexual matters: she’d been the subject of much prurient curiosity.
[Tess Myers, in conversation, after we agreed we’d both used this word but had never actually looked it up]
n.
- Land added to a royal forest by unlawful encroachment, but afterward disafforested, and restored to the former owners, its bounds and extent being settled by perambulation.
- The borders or environs of any place; the outskirts; outlying places: as, the purlieus of Paris.
[The Waves — Virginia Woolf]
noun
quid·di·ty | \ ˈkwi-də-tē \
1 : whatever makes something the type that it is : ESSENCE
2a : a trifling point : QUIBBLE b : CROTCHET, ECCENTRICITY
adjective
(of a subject or knowledge) little known; abstruse: the book is full of recondite information.
[Craig Mod, in a blog post]
n. (formal)
- The recurrence of an undesirable condition
[Beowulf — Trans. Maria Dahvana Headley]