51吃瓜 of the Day
plaintive
adjective
expressing sorrow or melancholy; mournful: a plaintive melody.
More about plaintive
The English adjective plaintive 鈥渟orrowful, melancholic鈥� comes from Middle English pleintif (also plaintive, plantif, and plantife), from the Old French adjective plaintif (masculine) and plaintive (feminine) 鈥渓amentable.鈥� Plaintif derives from the noun plainte 鈥渕ourning, lamentation,鈥� and comes from the Medieval Latin noun聽plancta, from Latin planctus 鈥渢he sound of a person striking their breast,鈥� from the verb plangere 鈥渢o beat, strike, mourn, bewail.鈥� Old French plaintif is also the source of English plaintiff 鈥渙ne who brings suit in a court, complainant.鈥� Plaintive entered English in the late 14th century.
how is plaintive used?
A strain of plaintive music, played on stringed instruments and flutes, recalled my attention to the hidden shrine.
Thundercat鈥檚 new album feels particularly suited for this moment 鈥� filled with both celestial, futuristic escapism and plaintive grief, the strength of human resilience and an unstinting sense of frustration.
plaintive
escapism
noun
the avoidance of reality by absorption of the mind in entertainment or in an imaginative situation, activity, etc.
More about escapism
Escapism, originally an Americanism, is a compound of escape and the suffix –ism, first appearing in 1933.
how is escapism used?
Most of us, when we arrive at a particularly trying moment in life, begin to indulge in escapism.
Not that there’s anything wrong with 别蝉肠补辫颈蝉尘鈥�until escapism is all you’ve got.
escapism
unctuous
adjective
excessively smooth, suave, or smug.
More about unctuous
Unctuous comes from Medieval Latin 耻苍肠迟耻艒蝉耻蝉, 鈥渇ull of grease or soft fat,鈥� a derivative of Latin unguen. All of the Middle English meanings pertain to grease, oil, or fat. It is only in the 18th century that the sense 鈥渕arked by spiritual unction or holy oil鈥� developed into the extended sense 鈥渟mooth, suave, or smug,鈥� the most common meaning of the word today. Unctuous entered English in the 14th century.
how is unctuous used?
Dwight Schrute, when last we left him, was regional manager of聽Dunder Mifflin聽Paper Company in Scranton, Pa. … He was vainglorious, unctuous, gullible, humorless, vulnerable, fascistic.
His style, moreover, struck her as being far too unctuous and effusive to be sincere.
unctuous