plangor

Forms

plangor m (genitive plangōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin plangō (“to beat, lament”) + -or.^[2][1] De Vaan traces plangō to Proto-Italic *plāng-e/o- (“to hit”) and the present Proto-Indo-European *plh₂-n-g- (“to hit”); the sense moved from hitting oneself on the breast to wailing and mourning.^[3] Cognate with Ancient Greek πλάζω (plázō, “to drive off course”) and Old Saxon flōkan (“to curse”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in the Rhetorica ad Herennium,^[4] which speaks of women using the beating of the breast and blows to the head in mourning: feminis plangore et capitis ictu … uti.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the beating or striking of something with a noise, as the waves that sound with a gentle splashing laughter in Catullus,^[2][5] and above all the beating of the breast, arms or face as a sign of grief, as often in Ovid.^[2][5] From this it came to mean loud mourning, wailing, lamentation:^[2] Cicero has a diadem put on amid the lamentation of the people, and Virgil a house howling with women's wailing.^[2] Ovid has plangōrem dare, to raise a lament,^[5] and Apuleius has a whole day spent in tears and laments.^[2] In medieval British Latin it means lamentation.^[6]

Timeline

• 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium, of beating the breast in grief.^[2][4]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus, of the splashing of waves.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of the lamentation of the people.^[2][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of women's wailing.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A beating, striking, with a noise; a splashing.^[2][5][1]
2. The beating of the breast or head in grief.^[2][5][1]
3. Lamentation, loud mourning, wailing.^[2][5][1]

Related words

• plangimōnium
• plangō
• plāga¹
• English plangent

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press