The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #122504   Message #2719398
Posted By: Jack Campin
08-Sep-09 - 08:22 PM
Thread Name: O Carolan's tribute
Subject: RE: O Carolans tribute
OED says they don't know where "planxty" came from but they think it might be from Latin "plangere", to strike. It certainly isn't from Irish.

I'd guess maybe from Latin "planctus", lament. ("Elegy" was generalized to include poems that nothing to do with commemorating the dead, so why not that one as well?)