different between plaintiff vs plaint

English

Etymology

From Middle English plaintif, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French plaintif (“complaining; as a noun, one who complains, a plaintiff”) from the verb plaindre. Doublet of plaintive.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ple?nt?f/

Noun

plaintiff (plural plaintiffs)

1. (law) A party bringing a suit in civil law against a defendant; accusers.

   Synonyms: complainant, litigant, (English law) claimant, (Scottish law) pursuer

   Antonyms: defendant, suspect

   Hypernyms: litigant, litigator

   Hyponyms: suer, petitioner

Related terms

• plaintive

Translations

Further reading

• plaintiff in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• plaintiff in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

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 (“I beat the breast, I lament”); see plain.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ple?nt/
• Rhymes: -e?nt

Noun

plaint (plural plaints)

1. (poetic or archaic) A lament or woeful cry.
   • 1827, Maria Elizabeth Budden, Nina, An Icelandic Tale, page 11:

     In the first paroxysm of his grief, Ingolfr exclaimed, (what sorrowing heart has not echoed his plaint?) that he could never more taste of joy.

   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, Chapter V, p. 75, [1]

     His shriek was as feeble as the plaint of a grass-stalk in a storm.

2. A complaint.
   • 1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew:

     she seemed to repeat, though with perceptible resignation, her plaint of a moment before. ‘Your father, darling, is a very odd person indeed.’

3. (archaic) A sad song.
4. (archaic or Britain law) An accusation.

   Once the plaint had been made there was nothing that could be done to revoke it.

Related terms

• complaint
• plaintiff
• plaintive

Further reading

• plaint in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• plaint in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• -platin, Taplin, platin, pliant

French

Etymology

From Middle French plaint, pleint, from Old French plaint, pleint, from Latin planctus.

Verb

plaint m (feminine singular plainte, masculine plural plaints, feminine plural plaintes)

1. past participle of plaindre

Related terms

• plainte

Anagrams

• pilant, pliant