plank

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English planke, first recorded as plaunke in 1294–95 and as a surname, Plank, from 1206,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old Northern French planke,^[4][2][5][6] also recorded in the Anglo-Norman form plauncke.^[3] This is a northern variant of Old French planche (“little wooden bridge; plank, slab”), the source of planch and planchette.^[3][4][7] It comes from Late Latin planca (“board, slab”),^[4][2][3] probably the feminine of Latin plancus (“flat, flat-footed”) used as a noun,^[4][5][8] which Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace to a nasalized form of Proto-Indo-European *plāk- (“to be flat”).^[4][6] Barnhart and Ayto relate the Latin word to Ancient Greek πλάξ (pláx, “flat surface”), the source of placenta.^[2][7] The OED, revised in 2006, calls the dating and origin of planca uncertain and derives it probably from Late Latin palanca (see palank), perhaps influenced by Latin plānus (“flat, level”);^[3] Klein likewise relates it to phalanga (“pole for carrying loads”), from Ancient Greek φάλαγξ (phálanx, “trunk, log”).^[9] The OED compares Dutch plank, German Planke and Swedish planka.^[3] The verb, first recorded in 1432, is formed from the noun.^[3][2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A long, flat piece of timber used in building, especially on ships: 1294–95, in a naval account.^[3][2] Etymonline gives the late 13th century, and about 1200 for the surname.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From timber for building and flooring the word spread to boards with a particular use, such as a footbridge or a table (before 1450), to sawn timber as a mass noun (1559), and to the plank a shipwrecked person clings to (1608).^[3] The political sense, an item of policy in a party's program, arose in the United States in 1848 from the double meaning of platform.^[4][3] Walk the plank is recorded from 1789;^[4] Etymonline notes that most early references are to slave ships rather than pirates,^[4] and Cresswell says there is little evidence that pirates did it regularly.^[10] In Britain a stupid person has been called a plank since about 1981, from as thick as two short planks, recorded from the 1970s;^[10][3] the yoga position followed in 1984.^[3] In mining in Northumberland and Durham a plank was a thick board supporting the roof of a coal working.^[11] The verb, at first "to cover with planks" (1432), took on the colloquial American sense "to pay down money" in 1824 and the dialect sense "to put down heavily", like plonk, in 1859.^[3][5]

Timeline

• 1206 – Plank as a surname.^[2]
• 1294–95 – a long, flat piece of timber.^[3][2]
• 1432 – verb, to cover or floor with planks.^[3][2]
• a. 1450 – a board serving as a bridge, table, etc.^[3]
• 1559 – timber cut into planks, as a mass noun.^[3]
• 1608 – figurative, the plank a shipwrecked person clings to.^[3]
• 1631 – in Scotland, a long narrow strip of cultivated land.^[3]
• 1789 – walk the plank.^[4]
• 1824 – verb, originally American, to pay money down.^[3]
• 1848 – an item of policy in a party platform, first in the United States.^[3][4]
• 1877 – verb, to cook meat or fish on a board.^[3]
• 1981 – British colloquial, a stupid person.^[3]
• 1984 – the plank position in yoga and exercise.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A long, flat, thick piece of sawn timber, used in building and flooring: They laid oak planks across the stream.^[12][13][3]
2. Timber cut into planks; planking.^[3][14]
3. Something that supports or sustains: Exports are the main plank of the island's economy.^[12]
4. An item of policy in the platform of a political party.^{[12][13][3][15]}
5. (British, informal) A stupid person.^[12][3]
6. An exercise in which the body is held straight, resting on the forearms or hands and the toes.^[3]
7. walk the plank: to be forced to walk off a plank jutting from a ship's side into the sea.^[12][15][4]

Verb

1. To cover, floor or build with planks: The hull was planked in larch.^[13][3][15]
2. (informal) To put down heavily or abruptly; to plonk: He planked the bags on the counter.^[13][15][3]
3. (informal, chiefly US) To pay money down at once, often with down or out.^[3][13][5]
4. To cook meat or fish on a board.^[3]

Word family

• plankless
• planklike
• gangplank

Related words

• planch
• planchette
• placenta
• palank
• plonk

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ 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)
12. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c d Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press