Platz

Forms

Platz m (genitive Platzes, plural Plätze, diminutive Plätzchen n or Plätzlein n or Platzerl n)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German plaz, borrowed from Old French place (“open space, square”), from Latin platea (“broad street”), from Ancient Greek πλατεῖα (plateîa, “street”), short for πλατεῖα ὁδός (plateîa hodós, “broad way”), from πλατύς (platús, “flat, broad”).^[2][3][4][1] Kluge gives Medieval Latin placea beside the French word as the source.^[5] Duden dates it to the end of the 13th century.^[3]

The masculine gender, against the feminine of the French word, probably follows nouns such as Markt, Ort and Raum.^[2] Dutch plaats and English place are borrowings of the same French word.^[2][5] Platz replaced the native Old High German zīh (“market square, place of assembly”).^[1][6] Some of its modern senses owe something to English.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Middle High German plaz, platz meant “open space”, in particular a dancing ground, tournament ground or battlefield, and also “dance, game”.^[2][7] Paul gives the market square of a town, a widening of the street, as its first sense.^[8] An early dated record is in Konrad von Würzburg's Trojanerkrieg (1281–1287).^[7]

Semantic evolution

From the square of a town the word spread to open spaces of every kind, as in Exerzierplatz, Spielplatz and Schauplatz, to a centre of trade (Handelsplatz), and in military language to a fortified place.^[8] It also came to mean the space that a person or thing takes up, as in Platz nehmen “to take a seat” and Sitzplatz, a rank or office, and free room for something (Platz haben, Platz machen).^[8] Older Platz geben “to give way” is found in Lessing.^[8]

German Platz was borrowed into Hungarian as placc, recorded in 1641 in the sense “arena; public”,^[9] and into Polish and Czech as plac.^[1]

Timeline

• 10th century – The native zīh “public meeting place” is recorded in a gloss.^[6]
• Late 13th century – Middle High German plaz is recorded.^[3][5]
• 1281–1287 – Konrad von Würzburg uses plaz in the Trojanerkrieg.^[7]
• 1641 – Hungarian placc is recorded.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A square, an open area in a town; a larger level area set aside for a purpose.^[4][1]
2. A sports ground: a pitch, court or course.^[4][1]
3. A place, spot, location, also a business location: Die Vase steht nicht an ihrem Platz.^[4][1]
4. A seat or position that someone occupies: Ist dieser Platz frei?^[4][1]
5. Room, space: Im Kofferraum ist kein Platz mehr.^[4][1]
6. A place or rank in a competition or ranking: den dritten Platz belegen.^[4][1]
7. Platz!: a command to a dog to lie down.^[10]

Word family

• Marktplatz
• Schauplatz
• Spielplatz
• Sportplatz
• Sitzplatz
• Stehplatz
• Arbeitsplatz
• Plätzchen

Related words

• platzieren
• platt
• English place

Usage notes

Ein Platz an der Sonne, a share of happiness and success, comes from a saying of the chancellor Bernhard von Bülow.^[4] Platz greifen means “to take hold, spread”, and am Platz sein “to be appropriate”.^[8][4] A regional Platz is a flat cake, today best known in the diminutive Plätzchen “biscuit”;^[5][2] platzbecke “cake baker” is recorded in the 14th century.^[5][2] Kluge gives it a numbered entry of its own and derives it from platzen, while Pfeifer and the Duden take it as the same word, named from the flat shape.^[5][2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
3. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
5. ^ a b c d e f g Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 710
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b c d e Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
9. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
10. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org