plain

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pleɪn/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English playne, pleyn, borrowed from Old French plain (“flat, smooth, even”),^[2][3][4] from Latin plānus (“flat, even, level”),^[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *pele- (“flat; to spread”), the source also of Lithuanian plónas “thin”.^[2][3] The noun, a stretch of flat land, is from Old French plain, from Latin plānum, the neuter of plānus used as a noun.^[3][5][2] It is a doublet of plane “a level surface” and of plan.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Smooth, flat, straight: about 1300 in Barnhart and Etymonline.^[3][2] The noun, a flat stretch of land, is also from about 1300, first used of Salisbury Plain.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

“Open, clear, pure, simple” is from before 1325, and “sincere, honest” from about 1375.^[3] “Ordinary, unaffected” is first in Chaucer, about 1386,^[3] and of dress, without decoration, from the late 14th century.^[2] Of words and speech, direct and to the point, is from the late 14th century,^[2] and plain English from about 1500.^[2] As a euphemism for “not good-looking” it dates from 1749.^[2] In the early 17th century mathematicians began to spell the geometrical sense plane to keep it apart from the senses “ordinary” and “simple”.^[6] The Plains of North America are from 1755,^[3] and plain clothes, civilian dress, from 1822.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – flat, smooth; noun, a level tract.^[3][2]
• c. 1375 – honest.^[3]
• c. 1386 – ordinary.^[3]
• c. 1500 – plain English.^[2]
• 1749 – not good-looking.^[2]
• 1755 – the Plains of America.^[3]
• 1822 – plain clothes.^[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Easy to see or understand; obvious.
2. Simple, without decoration or pattern.
3. Honest and direct in speech.
4. Not mixed with anything: plain water.
5. Ordinary, not special in rank.
6. Not attractive to look at.

Noun

1. A large area of flat land with few trees.

Adverb

1. Clearly or simply: plain stupid.

Word family

• plainly
• plainness
• overplain
• plainchant
• plainspoken
• plain-saw
• plain-woven
• plain-laid

Related words

• esplanade
• explain
• complain
• plaint
• plaintive
• plane
• plan

Usage notes

Another verb plain, to lament or complain, from French plaindre and Latin plangere, is now poetic and dialectal; it is related to complain.^[7][4] A Middle English adjective plain “full, entire”, from Latin plēnus, was used until the late 17th century, as in plain battle.^[7]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press