plane

English has three main words spelled plane: the tool for smoothing wood, the tree and the flat surface, which also gave the aircraft; the tool and the surface come from Latin plānus “flat”, the tree from Greek plátanos.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pleɪn/^[4]

plane¹ tool

Etymology

The tool is borrowed from Old French plane, earlier plaine,^[3][1][2] and perhaps directly from Late Latin plāna (“a planing tool”),^[3][1] a back-formation from plānāre (“to make level”),^[3][2] from Latin plānus (“level, flat, smooth”),^[3][1] from Proto-Indo-European *pele- (“flat; to spread”).^[3] The verb is from Old French planer “to smooth, level off” and directly from Late Latin plānāre.^[3][1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb, first figurative, “to gloss over, explain away”: before 1325, in Cursor Mundi,^[1] or the early 14th century in Etymonline.^[3] The noun, a tool like a plasterer's trowel, is from 1349–50 in the OED,^[5] 1350 in Barnhart.^[1]

Semantic evolution

“To make smooth or even”, especially with a plane, is from the mid-14th century;^[3] in early use the verb was often spelled plain.^[3][2] The carpenter's tool for levelling and smoothing wood is from about 1440.^[5] The planer is from 1413.^[1]

Timeline

• before 1325 – verb, to gloss over.^[1]
• 1349–50 – a smoothing tool.^[5]
• mid-14th century – to make smooth.^[3]
• 1413 – planer.^[1]
• c. 1440 – a carpenter's plane.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A tool with an adjustable blade for smoothing and shaping wood.

Verb

1. To smooth or shape with a plane.

Word family

• planer

plane² tree

Etymology

The tree is inherited from Middle English plane,^[6] borrowed from Old French plane, earlier plasne,^[3][1] from Latin platanus,^[3][1] from Ancient Greek πλάτανος (plátanos, “plane tree”), earlier platanistos,^[3][1] probably of foreign origin^[1] but associated with πλατύς (platús, “broad”), from the shape of its leaves.^[3][1][2] It is related to platypus and place.^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A tree of the genus Platanus: 1382 in the OED,^[5] before 1382 in the Wycliffe Bible according to Barnhart.^[1]

Semantic evolution

The tree is native to Persia and the Levant.^[3] Since 1778, in Scotland and the north of England, the name has been applied to the sycamore maple, whose leaves look like those of the true plane.^[3][5][7]

Timeline

• 1382 – the plane tree.^[5]
• 1778 – the sycamore, in Scotland.^[5][3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A tall tree of the genus Platanus, with broad leaves and bark that peels in flakes; a sycamore in North America.

Word family

• plane tree

plane³ flat surface; aircraft

Etymology

The flat surface is borrowed from Latin plānum (“flat surface, level ground”),^[3][1][6] the noun use of the neuter of plānus (“flat, level, plain”),^[3][1] from Proto-Indo-European *pla-no-, a suffixed form of Proto-Indo-European *pele- (“flat; to spread”).^[3] It was introduced, perhaps under the influence of French plan, to separate the geometrical senses from plain, its doublet.^[3][1] The verb “to soar” is from Old French planer “to hover”, from plan “plane”, of a bird gliding with flattened wings.^[3][1] The aircraft is a shortening of aeroplane.^[1][3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb “to soar, glide”: 1410, in Walton's translation of Boethius,^[1] the early 15th century in Etymonline.^[3] The noun, a flat surface: about 1600 in Etymonline,^[3] 1604 in Merriam-Webster^[6] and 1646 in Barnhart.^[1] The adjective is from 1666.^[1]

Semantic evolution

A level of existence or thought, of things, is from 1850.^[3] aeroplane, first recorded in 1866, combined aero- with plane, the surface meant to keep an aircraft aloft, imagined as flat; it was used for the vehicle from 1873, and airplane from 1907.^[8] Plane, the aircraft, is first recorded in April 1908.^[8][1][3] An American flies in an airplane and a Briton in an aeroplane, but both catch a plane.^[8] Of boats skimming over the water, the verb is from 1913.^[3]

Timeline

• 1410 – verb, to soar.^[1]
• c. 1600 – a flat surface.^[3]
• 1666 – adjective, flat.^[1]
• 1850 – a level of existence.^[3]
• 1866 – aeroplane.^[8]
• 1908 – an aircraft.^[8][1]
• 1913 – of a boat, to skim.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A flat or level surface.
2. In geometry, a surface containing every straight line joining any two points on it.
3. A level of development or existence: a higher plane.
4. An airplane.
5. A wing or other supporting surface of an aircraft.

Adjective

1. Flat; level.
2. Lying in a plane: plane geometry.

Verb

1. To fly or glide.
2. Of a boat, to skim along the surface of the water.

Word family

• airplane
• aeroplane
• biplane
• seaplane
• planar

Related words

• plain
• planate
• plan
• planet
• platypus
• place
• floor

Usage notes

In Northumberland mining a plane was a main road along which coal was hauled by engine power.^[7]

References

1. ^ 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ 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 32 33 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b 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)
8. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin