Dictionary

plonky en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˈplɒŋki/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈplɑŋki/ (General-American)
• (Australia) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree English plonk Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English plonky From plonk (“(noun) sound of something solid landing; (verb) to set or toss (something) down carelessly”) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘having the quality of’)..

Meanings

1. (informal) Chiefly of pianos: having an unappealing, thudding sound.
   • Clement Ishmael's plodding arrangements for lone, plonky piano, and the unlovely voices of two-thirds of the cast, do not help: even a sublimely sexy song like You Can Leave Your Hat On is rendered flat and toneless. 1996, Theatre Record, volume 16, numbers 9-15, page 871:
   • They both possess a light, slightly nasal voice, but whereas Siffre has his excellent guitar work to back up his vocals, O'Sullivan only has that same old plonky piano and his arranger. 1973, Beat Instrumental & International Recording, numbers 122-127, page 59:
2. (figuratively) Dull, stiff, unadventurous.
   • Where are the Paines and Cobdens and Nocks of today? Why are almost all of our laissez-faire limited governmentalists, plonky conservatives, and patriots? If the opposite of "radical" is "conservative," where are our radical laissez-fairists? If our limited statists were truly radical, there would be virtually no splits between us. What divides the movement now, the true division, is not anarchist vs. minarchist, but radical vs. conservative. Lord, give us radicals, be they anarchists or no. 1977 July, Murray N. Rothbard, “Do You Hate the State?”, in The Libertarian Forum, volume 10, number 7, Mises Institute, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Mar 2024:
3. (figuratively, slang) Of wine: having the qualities of plonk; cheap and inferior.

Forms

Deriveds

plinky-plonky