planctus

English

Etymology

Latin

Noun

planctus (plural plancti)

1. A lament or dirge, a popular literary form in the Middle Ages.

Latin

Etymology 1

Perfect passive participle of plangō.

Participle

plānctus (feminine plāncta, neuter plānctum); first/second-declension participle

1. (chiefly Late Latin, rare) bewailed, lamented, mourned
   • c. 27 CE – 66 CE, Petronius, Satyricon 42.6:

     Plānctus est optimē – manumīsit aliquot – etiam sī malignē illum plōrāvit uxor

     He got a first-class bewailing - he freed some servants; even though his wife only shed a few stingy tears for him.

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

Number	Singular				Plural
Case / Gender	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter		Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	plānctus	plāncta	plānctum		plānctī	plānctae	plāncta
Genitive	plānctī	plānctae	plānctī		plānctōrum	plānctārum	plānctōrum
Dative	plānctō		plānctō		plānctīs
Accusative	plānctum	plānctam	plānctum		plānctōs	plānctās	plāncta
Ablative	plānctō	plānctā	plānctō		plānctīs
Vocative	plāncte	plāncta	plānctum		plānctī	plānctae	plāncta

Etymology 2

plangō +‎ -tus (action noun suffix).

Noun

plānctus m (genitive plānctūs); fourth declension

1. a noisy beating, striking, slapping
2. a wailing, loud mourning, lamentation

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	plānctus	plānctūs
Genitive	plānctūs	plānctuum
Dative	plānctuī	plānctibus
Accusative	plānctum	plānctūs
Ablative	plānctū	plānctibus
Vocative	plānctus	plānctūs

Descendants

• Aromanian: plãmtu
• Catalan: plant
• English: plaint
• French: plainte
• Galician: chanto (archaic), pranto
• Italian: pianto
• Norman: pliainte
• Occitan: plancha
• Old Galician-Portuguese: chanto
• Portuguese: pranto
• Sardinian: piantu, prantu
• Sicilian: ciantu, chiantu
• Spanish: llanto, planto

Further reading

• “planctus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “planctus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• planctus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• planctus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.