plait

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pleit, also plait and plet,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman pleit (“fold, twisting”),^[4][2][5] a variant of ploit, which is recorded in Old French as pleit about 1165.^[4] The French word goes back to an unattested Late Latin *plictum,^[4][6] the neuter of plictus, used as a noun; that form is a variant of the past participle of plicō (“to fold”),^[4][3][7] from Proto-Indo-European *plek- (“to plait”).^[5][8] The OED treats the verb as formed from the noun in English.^[4] Barnhart objects that the verb is recorded first and that the sense "braid" appears in the verb before the noun, and suggests that the verb may be the original word, either borrowed from Old French plier (“to fold”) or the source of the noun;^[9] Etymonline derives the verb from the noun and also from another Old French verb for folding, pleir.^[5] Weekley asked whether the source might instead be Latin plectō (“to weave”),^[10] which Wiktionary also gives.^[1] Pleat, plat and plight are doublets of the word.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

An interlaced length of strands, and the verb for making one: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus.^[4][9] Barnhart has the noun about 1385 in the sense "pleat, fold, wrinkle", as plite in Usk's Testament of Love, and the verb about 1330 as pliten, to join or fasten.^[9] The OED thinks that its verb pleat implies currency from the beginning of the 14th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Both senses were there in Middle English: a fold of cloth and a braid of strands, the first being the older according to Hoad and Weekley,^[6][10] who see it surviving in the spelling pleat.^[10] In Middle English the word also meant a coil of the intestines and a unit of measure for cloth.^[2] From the 16th century a plait could also be a wrinkle or a folded area in a plant or animal,^[4] and figuratively a quirk, a snag or something hidden away, a sense the OED records from 1589 to 1855.^[4] Davies's lines quoted by Johnson (1755), who defined the noun as "a fold; a double", show the "fold" sense still current.^[12] The two senses have since moved apart: the "fold" sense is now rare and chiefly American in the spelling plait,^[4][13] and the "braid" sense is the main one.^[4][7] The verb developed in the same way, from folding to braiding, and also came to mean making something by plaiting, from 1723.^[4] A horse that sets its hooves in front of each other in a faulty gait was said to plait, a use recorded from 1616 of crossing the legs or feet.^[4] In Scots and northern English dialect the word appears as plat, plet and plit.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – verb, as pliten, to join or fasten.^[9]
• c. 1385 – noun, a fold or wrinkle.^[9] The OED first has the sense of a pleat in 1440.^[4]
• before 1398 – noun and verb, a braid of strands and to braid them.^[4][9]
• c. 1400 – verb, to fold or gather in pleats.^[4]
• 1574 – a fold or wrinkle in an animal or plant structure.^[4]
• 1589 – figurative, a quirk or something concealed (obsolete by 1855).^[4]
• 1616 – verb, to cross the feet or legs.^[4]
• 1642 – verb, figurative and extended uses.^[4]
• 1723 – verb, to make something by plaiting.^[4]
• c. 1890 – noun, a thing shaped or patterned like a plait.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A length of hair, ribbon, straw or rope made of three or more interlaced strands; a braid: She wore a thick plait down her back.^[13][3][4]
2. Braided fibre, especially for straw hats.^[3]
3. In Britain, a loaf of bread with several intertwined parts.^[13]
4. (rare, chiefly US) A pleat in fabric.^[13][4]
5. A fold or wrinkle in an animal or plant structure, such as one of the folds on the inner wall of some gastropod shells.^[3][4]
6. (obsolete, 1589–1855) A quirk, or something hidden so as to mislead.^[4][7]

Verb

1. To intertwine strands of something: He plaited the mare's tail before the show.^[13][3][4]
2. To make something by plaiting: They plaited mats from palm leaves.^[3][4]
3. To fold fabric into pleats.^[3][4]

Word family

• plaiter
• interplait
• unplait

Related words

• pleat
• plat
• plight
• ply
• plicate
• implicate
• implicit

Usage notes

The OED gives /plat/ for British English and /pleɪt/ and /plæt/ for American English.^[4] Walker's pronouncing dictionary (1791) condemned a pronunciation like plete as corrupt,^[4] and Oxford notes that the word was formerly often pronounced like plate, with the modern British one going back to the spelling plat.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press