英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

plane [plane 词源字典]: plane: English has five distinct planes, four of which are essentially the same word as plain. These come ultimately from Latin plānus, but preserve its ‘flat’ meanings rather than (like plain) its ‘clear’ meanings. Plane ‘flat surface’ [17] comes from Latin plānum, a noun use of the neuter form of the adjective; it is the plane from which aeroplane, and hence its abbreviation plane, were formed. Plane ‘carpenter’s smoothing tool’ [14] comes via Old French plane from late Latin plāna, a derivative of the verb plānāre ‘make level’, itself a derivative of plānus. Plane ‘flat’ [17] is an alteration of plain, on the model of French plan ‘flat’.

And plane ‘glide, soar’ [17] comes from French planer, a derivative of plan ‘level surface’ (the underlying notion being of a bird soaring with level wings). The odd man out is plane the tree-name [14], which comes via Old French plane and Latin platanus from Greek plátanos, a derivative of platús ‘broad’ (source of English place, plaice, and platypus) – the reference being to its broad leaves. Platanus probably also underlies English plantain, as applied to the banana-like vegetable.
=> piano, plain; place, plaice, plantain, plate, platypus[plane etymology, plane origin, 英语词源]
planet: planet: [12] A planet is etymologically a ‘wanderer’. The word comes via Old French planete and late Latin planēta from Greek planétos, a derivative of the verb planasthai ‘wander’. This was applied to any heavenly body that appeared to move or ‘wander’ across the skies among the fixed stars, which in ancient astronomy included the sun and moon as well as Mars, Venus, etc. The modern application to a ‘body that orbits the sun (or similar star)’ dates from the mid 17th century.
plangent: plangent: see plague
plank: plank: [13] The etymological idea underlying plank may be ‘flatness’. It comes via planke, a northern dialect version of Old French planche (source of English planchette [19]), from late Latin planca ‘slab’, a derivative of the adjective plancus ‘flat’. This may have come from the same source as Greek pláx ‘flat surface’, ancestor of English placenta.
=> planchette
plankton: plankton: [19] The ultimate source of plankton is Greek plázein ‘hit’, a descendant of the same base as produced English apoplexy, plague, and plectrum. The link between these two unlikelysounding relatives is that something that is hit moves or wanders, and plankton are minute organisms that wander or drift in the ocean. The Greek derivative plagtón meant ‘wanderer’, and the application to ‘plankton’ was first made in German in the 1880s.
=> plague
plant: plant: [OE] Etymologically, a plant is probably something you press into the ground with the ‘sole’ of your foot. The word was borrowed from Latin planta ‘shoot, sprout, cutting’, a derivative of the verb plantāre ‘plant, transplant’, and it has been speculated that this was based on Latin planta ‘sole of the foot’ (source of English plantain and plantigrade ‘walking on the soles of the feet’ [19]).
=> plan, plantain
plantain: plantain: Two entirely unrelated plants have the name plantain. Both get it from their broad leaves. One, an insignificant-looking weed [14], comes via Old French plantain from Latin plantāgō, a derivative of planta ‘sole of the foot’ (source of English plantigrade and possibly plant). The other, a tropical plant of the banana family [16], was originally named by the Spaniards plántano ‘plane tree’, a descendant of the same Latin source as produced English plane (which etymologically means ‘broad-leaved’). This was adopted by English and quickly altered to the more familiar plantain.
=> plan, plant; plane
plasma: plasma: see plastic
plaster: plaster: [OE] Like plastic, plaster comes ultimately from the Greek verb plássein ‘mould’. Combination with the prefix en- ‘in’ produced emplássein ‘daub on, plaster’. From its past participle emplastós was derived émplastron ‘medicinal application to the skin’, which reached Latin as emplastrum. Medieval Latin shortened it to plastrum, which Old English adopted as plaster. Its use for a ‘soft substance spread on walls, etc’ was introduced via Old French plastre in the 14th century.
=> plastic
plastic: plastic: [16] Plastic is etymologically a ‘mouldable’ substance. The word comes via French plastique and Latin plasticus from Greek plastikós ‘fit for moulding’, a derivative of the verb plássein ‘mould’ (source also of English plasma [18] and plaster). Up until the 20th century its main use in English was as an adjective, meaning ‘pliable’. The first record of its use for a ‘synthetic material made from organic compounds’ comes from 1909. The trade-name Plasticine was coined from it in the 1890s.
=> plasma, plaster
plate: plate: [13] Etymologically, a plate is something ‘flat’. It comes from Vulgar Latin *plattus ‘flat’, which may go back to Greek platús ‘broad’ (source of English place, plane the tree, and platypus). It reached English via two separate Old French words, which have since coalesced: first plate, which gives the sense ‘flat sheet’, as in silver plate and plate glass; and then, in the 15th century, plat, ‘dish for food’.

Related forms in English include plateau [18], platform [16] (etymologically a ‘flat form’), platinum [19], platitude [19] (a ‘flat’ or dull remark), and platter [14].
=> flat, place, plane, plateau, platform, platinum, platitude, platter, platypus
platoon: platoon: [17] Platoon means etymologically ‘little ball’. It comes from French peloton, a diminutive form of pelote ‘ball’ (source of English pellet). The notion of a ‘small ball’ was extended in French to a ‘little cluster of people or group of soldiers’ – hence the meaning of English platoon.
=> pellet, pelota
platter: platter: see plate
platypus: platypus: [18] The platypus’s name means literally ‘flat-footed’. It was given to it at the end of the 18th century, and is first recorded in George Shaw’s Naturalists’ Miscellany 1799. It was adapted from Greek platúpous, a compound formed from platús ‘flat’ (source of English place, plaice, and plane the tree) and poús ‘foot’ (a relative of English foot).
=> foot, place, plane, plate
play: play: [OE] The origins of play are obscure. It had a relative in Middle Dutch pleien ‘dance about, jump for joy’, but this has now died out, leaving it in splendid but puzzling isolation, its ancestry unaccounted for. Its underlying meaning appears to be ‘make rapid movements for purposes of recreation’, but already in Old English times it was being used for ‘perform on a musical instrument’. The earliest record of the use of the noun for a ‘dramatic work’ is from the 14th century.
plead: plead: [13] Essentially plead and plea are the same word. Both go back ultimately to Latin placitum ‘something pleasant’, hence ‘something that pleases both sides’, ‘something agreed upon’, and finally ‘opinion, decision’. This was a noun formed from the past participle of placēre ‘please’ (source of English please). It passed into Old French as plaid ‘agreement, discussion, lawsuit’, and formed the basis of a verb plaidier, from which (via Anglo-Norman pleder) English got plead. In later Old French plaid became plait, and Anglo-Norman took it over as plai or ple – whence English plea [13].
=> plea, please
please: please: [14] Please is at the centre of a small family of English words that go back to Latin placēre ‘please’ (a derivative of the same base as produced plācāre ‘calm, appease’, source of English implacable [16] and placate [17]). Related English words that started life in Latin include complacent, placebo, and placid [17]. It reached English via Old French plaisir, and other derivatives picked up via Old French or Anglo-Norman are plea, plead, pleasant [14], and pleasure [14] (originally a noun use of the verb plaisir).
=> complacent, implacable, placate, placebo, placid, plea, plead, pleasant, pleasure
pleat: pleat: [14] Pleat, plait, and plight ‘predicament’ are essentially the same word, but have become differentiated over the centuries. All three go back to Vulgar Latin *plicitum or *plictum ‘fold’, a noun use of the past participle of Latin plicāre ‘fold’ (source of English ply). This became Old French pleit, which was originally borrowed into English as plete ‘fold’. Plete was to become modern English pleat, but at first it was used only as a verb.

For the noun, English borrowed pleit as plait [15] ‘fold’, which did not begin to acquire its modern English meaning ‘braid’ until the 16th century. The Anglo- Norman version of pleit was plit, which gave English plight [14]. This too originally meant ‘fold’, and the sense ‘predicament’ was presumably due to the influence of the other (completely unrelated) English word plight (see PLEDGE), which as a noun in Old and Middle English meant ‘danger’, but is now mainly encountered in the expression ‘plight one’s troth’.
=> fold, plait, plight, ply
plebeian: plebeian: [16] The plēbs were the ‘common people’ of ancient Rome (the word may connected with Greek pléthos ‘multitude’, a relative of English plethora). English gets plebeian from its derived adjective plēbēius. The connotations of ‘lower-classness’ have been transferred from ancient Rome to the present day, and inspired the derogatory pleb [19]. A plebiscite [16] is etymologically a ‘decree approved by the common people’.
plectrum: plectrum: see plague