planen

Forms

planen (third-person singular present plant, past tense plante, past participle geplant, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from German Plan (“plan, ground plan”) + -en, in the 18th century according to Pfeifer and in the 19th according to the Duden.^[2][3][4] The noun was borrowed in the 18th century from French plan and long kept its French pronunciation.^[2][3]

Kluge and the Duden derive the French word from Latin planta (“sole of the foot”), so that the plan was properly a ground plan; the Duden adds that it followed Italian pianta, which means both “sole of the foot” and “ground plan of a building”, and only later merged with French ⟨plan⟩ “flat surface”.^[2][4] Pfeifer instead takes French “plan” as a back-formation from the verb planter (“to set up, erect”), from plantō (“to plant”).^[3] Either way the noun is related to Pflanze.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun Plan is recorded at the beginning of the 18th century for the ground plan of a building or town, and in the transferred sense “basic idea, design, intention” from the second half of the century.^[3] The verb is recorded in the 18th century for making or working out a plan.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Grimms' dictionary quotes the verb in the sense “to devise a plan” from a folk song collection and in Scheffel, and records Tyrolean planen “to forge plans”.^[5] In the mid-20th century Plan took on the sense of a binding plan for the national economy, following Russian план (plan).^[3] The adjectives planvoll and planlos are both from the 18th century.^[3]

Timeline

• Early 18th century – Plan is borrowed for a ground plan.^[3]
• Second half of the 18th century – Plan is used for “design, intention”.^[3]
• 18th century – planen, planvoll and planlos are recorded.^[3]
• Mid-20th century – Plan takes on the economic sense of Russian plan.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To plan, work out a plan for: eine neue Brücke planen.^[6][1]
2. To intend, have in mind: Wir planen, im Sommer nach Schweden zu fahren.^[6]

Word family

• Planung
• Planer
• verplanen
• einplanen

Related words

• Plan
• Pflanze
• Plantage

Usage notes

An older verb of the same spelling, Old High German plānōn, Middle High German plânen “to level, smooth”, borrowed from Latin plānāre, is recorded in Notker and Veldeke; compare planieren.^[7][5] The young Goethe also used planen “to hover” of birds of prey, after French planer.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 709
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
5. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 13, 1887
6. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling