Etymologically
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plant

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 18:46. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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
  • 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