Etymologically
Log in

Plan

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 19:06. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

Forms

Plan m (genitive Planes or Plans, plural Pläne)[1] The plural was formerly Plane, as in Goethe's Werther; it is now Pläne.[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French plan (“ground plan, design”), borrowed at the beginning of the 18th century and long pronounced in the French way.[3][4][5][2] French has had the word since 1553.[5]

The origin of the French word is debated.[3][4][6] Kluge, Duden and the Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch trace it to Latin planta (“sole of the foot”), a plan being properly a ground plan;[3][6][5] Duden adds that the older French form was plant, that the development followed Italian pianta (“sole of the foot; ground plan”), and that the word only later merged with the French noun meaning “surface”, from plānus (“flat”).[6] Pfeifer instead takes it as a back-formation from planter (“to set up; to plant”), from plantō (“to plant”).[4] Either way it belongs with Pflanze.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest German records are from military language, for the ground plan of a fortification or building (Fäsch 1735, Sturm 1737), sometimes in the Italian form plano; from there the word slowly entered the general language, and dictionaries list it from 1727.[5] Paul calls the sense “ground plan” a loan meaning taken from French at the beginning of the 18th century.[2]

Semantic evolution

Because a large ground plan can be a design still to be carried out, the meaning widened in the 18th century to “design for something to be done, intention”.[2][4] Wahrig credits Goethe and the other classical writers with establishing this sense.[7] Pfeifer dates the verb planen to the 18th century and Duden to the 19th, and planlos and planvoll are also of the 18th century.[4][6] Planer was only a name, mainly a surname, before the first half of the 20th century.[6]

In the sense “binding guideline for the economy over a given period” (mid-20th century) the word follows the meaning that Russian план (plan) had developed;[4] Planwirtschaft is recorded from 1922.[2] German passed the word on to Czech and Slovak plán,[8] and Latvian plā̃ns was borrowed from it.[1]

Timeline

  • 1553 – French plan is recorded.[5]
  • Early 18th century – Plan “ground plan” is borrowed from French.[4][2]
  • 1735–1737 – Military writers use it for the plan of a fortification.[5]
  • Second half of the 18th century – The sense “intention, design” is established.[4][2]
  • 1922 – Planwirtschaft “planned economy” is recorded.[2]
  • Mid-20th century – The economic sense after Russian plan.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A plan, intention, project: Sie hat große Pläne für den Sommer.[1][9]
  2. A planned way of proceeding, scheme: Alles lief nach Plan.[1]
  3. A drawing or diagram of a building or technical part: der Plan des Hauses.[1][9]
  4. A detailed map, as in Stadtplan.[1][9]
  5. (colloquial) An idea, a clue: Ich habe keinen Plan, wo das ist.[1]
  6. A plot.[1]

Word family

  • planen
  • Planer
  • Planung
  • planlos
  • planvoll
  • Planwirtschaft
  • plan
  • Pflanze
  • Plantage

Usage notes

An older Plan “level open ground; meadow; field of combat”, Middle High German plān (around 1200), from Medieval Latin plānum (“plain”), has a numbered entry of its own in Kluge and Duden.[3][2][6] It survives almost only in auf den Plan treten “to appear on the scene” and jemanden auf den Plan rufen “to call someone into action”, which originally meant calling someone onto the field of combat;[6][10] Goethe's mit dir nur tanzt er auf dem Plan uses it for an open-air dance floor.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  3. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 709
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  5. ^ a b c d e f Schulz, Hans; Basler, Otto, et al. (1913–1988), Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch, 7 vols., Strasbourg / Berlin: Trübner / De Gruyter; 2nd ed., ed. Gerhard Strauß et al. (1995–), Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; via OWID, Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 633
  7. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  8. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  9. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  10. ^ Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag