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plan

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /plæn/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French plan (“ground plan, map; plane surface”).[2][3][4] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the American Heritage Dictionary explain the French word as an alteration of plant (“ground plan”), from planter (“to plant, fix in place”), influenced by plan (“flat”),[5][4][6] with the sense of Italian pianta (“plan of a building”).[4][5] Barnhart and Etymonline derive it from Latin plānum (“level surface”), from plānus (“level, flat”),[3][2] and Klein and Merriam-Webster see a blend of the two.[7][8] Etymonline calls it a doublet of plain.[2] It is related to plane and plant.[7][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

An organized plan or proposal: 1635 according to Merriam-Webster and the HTOED.[8][10] Etymonline dates the word to the 1670s, as a technical term in perspective drawing,[2] and Barnhart to 1678, in Phillips' dictionary, for a plane at right angles to the line of sight.[3]

Semantic evolution

A plan of a building is recorded from 1664.[10] The sense “a drawing of anything on a flat surface” and the general sense “a scheme of action” are both found in Kersey's edition of Phillips' dictionary in 1706,[3][2] though Etymonline dates the latter to 1713.[2] The verb appears in Pope's Dunciad (1728), “to make a plan of”,[3][2] and “to scheme, devise” by 1737.[2] Planned economy is from 1931.[2]

Timeline

  • 1635 – a plan, a proposal.[8][10]
  • 1664 – a plan of a building.[10]
  • 1670s – in perspective drawing.[2]
  • 1706 – a drawing; a scheme of action (Kersey).[3]
  • 1728 – verb (Pope's Dunciad).[3]
  • 1931 – planned economy.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A scheme or method worked out beforehand to achieve an aim.
  2. An intended project or course of action.
  3. An orderly arrangement of parts; an outline.
  4. A drawing or diagram made to scale, showing the layout of a building or area.
  5. (perspective drawing) A plane at right angles to the line of sight.

Verb

  1. To work out a scheme for; to arrange beforehand.
  2. To intend: we plan to leave early.
  3. To draw a plan of.

Word family

  • planner
  • planless
  • planlessly
  • planlessness
  • counterplan
  • misplan
  • planform
  • planify

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary groups plan with blueprint, design, project, scheme and strategy, all meaning a programme for getting something done.[11]

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin