Plight vs Tragedy - What's the difference?
plight | tragedy |
A dire or unfortunate situation.
*{{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 10, author=Arindam Rej, work=BBC Sport
, title= *2005 , Lesley Brown, translating Plato, Sophist , :
*:Though we say we are quite clear about it and understand when someone uses the expression, unlike that other expression, maybe we're in the same plight with regard to them both.
*, II.8:
*:although hee live in as good plight and health as may be, yet he chafeth, he scoldeth, he brawleth, he fighteth, he sweareth, and biteth, as the most boistrous and tempestuous master of France .
(obsolete) Good health.
*1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.7:
*:All wayes shee sought him to restore to plight , / With herbs, with charms, with counsel, and with teares.
Responsibility for ensuing consequences; risk; danger; peril.
An instance of danger or peril; a dangerous moment or situation.
Blame; culpability; fault; wrong-doing; sin; crime.
One's office; duty; charge.
(archaic) That which is exposed to risk; that which is plighted or pledged; security; a gage; a pledge.
* Shakespeare
To expose to risk; to pledge.
Specifically, to pledge (one's troth etc.) as part of a marriage ceremony.
(reflexive) To promise (oneself) to someone, or to do something.
* 1992 , Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety , Harper Perennial 2007, p. 226:
(obsolete) To weave; to braid; to fold; to plait.
* Milton
(obsolete) A network; a plait; a fold; rarely a garment.
* Spenser
A drama or similar work, in which the main character is brought to ruin or otherwise suffers the extreme consequences of some tragic flaw or weakness of character.
The genre of such works, and the art of producing them.
A disastrous event, especially one involving great loss of life or injury.
* {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
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As nouns the difference between plight and tragedy
is that plight is a dire or unfortunate situation or plight can be responsibility for ensuing consequences; risk; danger; peril or plight can be (obsolete) a network; a plait; a fold; rarely a garment while tragedy is a drama or similar work, in which the main character is brought to ruin or otherwise suffers the extreme consequences of some tragic flaw or weakness of character.As a verb plight
is to expose to risk; to pledge or plight can be (obsolete) to weave; to braid; to fold; to plait.plight
English
Etymology 1
(etyl) ).Noun
(en noun)Norwich 4-2 Newcastle, passage=A second Norwich goal in four minutes arrived after some dire Newcastle defending. Gosling gave the ball away with a sloppy back-pass, allowing Crofts to curl in a cross that the unmarked Morison powered in with a firm, 12-yard header. ¶ Gosling's plight worsened when he was soon shown a red card for a foul on Martin.}}
Etymology 2
From (etyl) . More at pledge.Noun
(en noun)- that lord whose hand must take my plight
Derived terms
* (l) * (l)Verb
(en verb)- I ask what I have done to deserve it, one daughter hobnobbing with radicals and the other planning to plight herself to a criminal.
Derived terms
* (l)Etymology 3
Through (etyl), from (etyl) and Danish flette are probably unrelated.Verb
(en verb)- A plighted garment of divers colors.
Noun
(en noun)- Many a folded plight .
tragedy
English
(wikipedia tragedy)Alternative forms
* (archaic) * (l) (archaic) * (archaic) * (l) (archaic) * (l) (archaic)Noun
(tragedies)citation, passage=“The story of this adoption is, of course, the pivot round which all the circumstances of the mysterious tragedy revolved. Mrs. Yule had an only son, namely, William, to whom she was passionately attached ; but, like many a fond mother, she had the desire of mapping out that son's future entirely according to her own ideas. […]”}}