plaintivenessn.
/ˈpleɪntᵻvnᵻs/, U.S. /ˈpleɪn(t)ᵻvnᵻs/ The quality or condition of being plaintive.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > sorrow or grief > lamentation or expression of grief > [noun] > condition or quality of lamenting
moanc1390
plainfulnessa1586
mournfulness1633
plaintiveness1747
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > degree, kind, or quality of sound > unpleasant quality > mournful or plaintive sound > [noun] > quality
plaintiveness1747
1747 S. Foote Rom. & Eng. Comedy 35 There is a melancholy Plaintiveness in her Voice, and such a Dejection of Countenance.
1773 W. Melmoth Remarks in tr. Cicero Cato 196 The alternate plaintiveness and boldness of his strain.
1845 E. Robinson Whitehall I. xvii. 197 Gushes of rapture and plaintiveness.
1880 Scribner's Monthly May 244/2 He went on from this with many pauses and gropings after words and idiom, to tell, with a plaintiveness that seemed to Frowenfeld almost unmanly, [etc.].
1916 E. H. Porter Just David viii. 111 His violin playing that evening carried a moaning plaintiveness.
2004 Sunday Independent (Ireland) (Nexis) 20 June The refrain ‘Rose, Mabel and Gladys’ has the plaintiveness of a litany.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1747