Etymologically
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plane

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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

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