hobson's word of the week - #4

hobson's word of the week - #4:

plangent

origin of the word:

dunno - but the japense translation is 哀調を帯びた (pronounced "aichou wo obita").

meaning of the word:

there are two definitions for plangnent:

1. having a loud, rich sound
2. having a mournful sound

hobson's context:

1. loud, rich

hobson to bell-ringer: "my word... those are plangent bells"
bell-ringer to hobson: "what are you on about dude... those are brass bells"

2. mournful

a distant-looking hobson to mate: "from the doorway came the plangent sounds of a guitar"
a confused-looking mate to hobson: "dude... what the f*ck are you on about?"

learning the word:

this appears to be more a written word than a spoken word (if there is such a thing). "plangent" doesn't roll off the tongue easily. although it does ryhme with "tangent" - which is a cool word used by mathematicians. i would suggest that you use "plangent" in emails, letters, essays, novels, theses, and postcards, etc. below is a link to a a clever girl who has used "plangent" as the title for a blog concerning big brother (orwell not ferdie):

http://scrawford.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2005/3/22/464370.html