plaint
/pleɪnt/ noun
Forms plaints
- noun A complaint.
- noun (poetic or archaic) A lament or woeful cry.
- noun (archaic) A sad song.
- noun (archaic or UK law) An accusation. “Once the plaint had been made there was nothing that could be done to revoke it.”
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English plainte, borrowed from Anglo-Norman plainte (“lamentation”), plaint (“lament”), and Old French pleinte (“lamentation”), pleint (“lament”) (modern French plainte), from Medieval Latin plancta (“plaint”), from Latin planctus (“a beating of the breast in lamentation, beating, lamentation”), from Latin plango (“to beat one's breast, to lament”); see plain.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Audible expression of sorrow; lamentation; complaint; hence, a mournful song; a lament. Chaucer."The Psalmist's mournful plaint." Wordsworth.
- noun An accusation or protest on account of an injury.
Etymology [OE. plainte, pleynte, F. plainte, fr. L. plangere, planctum (plancta, fem. p.p.), to beat, beat the breast, lament. Cf. Complain, Plague, Plangent.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “plaint”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details