plant

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /plɑːnt/, US /plænt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English plante,^[2][3] borrowed from Old English plante (“young plant, sprout”),^[4][2] itself borrowed from Latin planta (“sprout, shoot, cutting”),^[4][2][5] and later reborrowed from Old French plante.^[2][6] Latin planta is perhaps from an unattested verb *plantāre “to drive in with the feet”,^[4][2][3] from planta (“sole of the foot”),^[4][3] from a nasalized form of Proto-Indo-European *plat- (“to spread”).^[4] The verb is Old English plantian, from Latin plantāre “to plant, fix in place”, reinforced by Old French planter.^[4][3][7] German Pflanze, Irish cland and Welsh plant are also from Latin.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A young tree, shrub or herb newly planted, a cutting or seedling: before 830 in Barnhart^[2] and about 825 in the OED.^[8] The verb, to set in the ground to grow, is from about 825 too,^[8] and also meant “to establish, set up for the first time”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The broader biological sense, any living thing that is not an animal, is from 1551,^[8][2] apparently borrowed from Middle French.^[2] The verb came to mean “to insert firmly” in the late 14th century,^[4] “to settle people in a colony” from about 1300,^[4] and of ideas, “to implant”, from the early 15th century.^[4] From the general sense of something fixed came the meaning of the buildings and machinery of an industrial process, first recorded in 1789,^[2] and plant yourself somewhere is from the early 18th century.^[9] A spy or person placed to gather information is from 1812,^[2][4] and to station someone secretly is by the 1690s.^[4] To hide something so that it will be found and mislead is by 1865,^[4] to land a blow is boxing slang by 1808,^[4] and “to bury” is US slang from 1855.^[4] Many of these developments follow French.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 825 – a seedling, cutting; verb, to plant.^[8]
• c. 1300 – verb, to settle a colony.^[4]
• 1551 – a member of the vegetable kingdom.^[8][2]
• 1690s – verb, to station someone secretly.^[4]
• 1789 – an industrial plant.^[2]
• 1812 – a spy.^[2][4]
• 1865 – verb, to hide evidence to mislead.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A living organism of the kingdom that includes trees, shrubs, grasses and ferns, usually making its food by photosynthesis and unable to move.
2. A plant without a woody stem; a herb or young plant for planting.
3. A factory, or the buildings, machinery and equipment of an industrial process.
4. A person placed to spy or to act as a decoy; something planted to mislead.

Verb

1. To put seeds or young plants in the ground to grow; to sow land with them.
2. To set firmly in place; to establish or found.
3. To place secretly, especially so as to mislead or incriminate.
4. To deliver a blow.

Word family

• plantable
• plantlike
• plantless
• unplanted
• interplant
• misplant
• overplant
• preplant

Related words

• plantation
• plantain
• implant
• transplant
• supplant
• place
• plate
• flat

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 l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press