Etymologically
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plaque

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /plæk/, /plɑːk/[1]
  • US: /plæk/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French plaque (“plate bearing an inscription; badge of high rank”),[2][3][4][5] a use of plaque (“flat plate”), recorded in Middle French from 1562,[2] from plaquer (“to plate, to apply flat”),[2][5][6][7] from Middle Dutch placken (“to plaster, stick, patch”).[2][5][6][7] The Oxford dictionaries trace it instead to Dutch plak (“tablet”), from plakken (“to stick”).[8][9][10] Barnhart calls the French word of uncertain origin, perhaps through a Flemish word for a small coin or directly from placke (“disk, patch, stain”),[3][4] which is related to Middle High German placke (“patch, stain”) and German Placken (“spot, patch”).[3][11][4] The same French verb gave placard.[2][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small ornamental tablet worn as the badge of an honorary order: 1848, in Thackeray's Vanity Fair.[2][3] Merriam-Webster gives 1845 as the first known use.[6]

Semantic evolution

Word Origins sees the idea of sticking at the core of the word, whether for a plaque fixed to a wall, plaque clinging to teeth or a fatty deposit on an artery.[10] An ornamental plate hung on a wall is recorded from 1869, and a plate fixed to a building or monument with commemorative details from 1922;[2] Weekley already notes its use for the commemorative plates on historic houses in London.[12] Medical senses arrived from French: a patch of abnormal tissue on the skin in 1866,[2] a fatty and fibrous thickening of an artery wall in 1891,[2][3][4] and a bacterial deposit on teeth in 1898, a use the OED finds in French only much later.[2][3][4] The plaques of Alzheimer's disease are named in 1912, and a clear area in a bacterial culture killed by a virus in 1924.[2] A plaque was also a gambling counter from 1904.[2] In Irish slang it has meant the face.[13]

Timeline

  • 1845 – first known use, according to Merriam-Webster.[6]
  • 1848 – the badge of an honorary order.[2][3]
  • 1866 – a flat, raised patch of abnormal tissue on the skin.[2]
  • 1869 – an ornamental plate or tablet hung on a wall.[2]
  • 1891 – a fatty, fibrous deposit in the wall of an artery.[2][3][4]
  • 1898 – a deposit of bacteria on the teeth.[2][3][4]
  • 1904 – a gambling counter.[2]
  • 1912 – an area of degeneration in the brain, as in Alzheimer's disease.[2]
  • 1922 – a commemorative plate on a building or monument.[2]
  • 1924 – a clear area in a culture of cells destroyed by a virus.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A flat tablet of metal, wood or porcelain with an inscription, fixed to a wall or building to commemorate a person or event: a plaque marks the house where the poet was born.[14][15][6][2]
  2. An ornamental plate hung on a wall or set into furniture.[6][2][16]
  3. A small flat brooch or badge, especially that of an honorary order.[14][6][2]
  4. A sticky film of saliva and bacteria that forms on the teeth; dental plaque.[14][15][2]
  5. (medicine) A small, distinct raised patch on or in the body, such as a fatty deposit on an artery wall or a skin lesion.[15][14][2]
  6. (microbiology) A clear area in a culture of cells where a virus has destroyed them.[15][14][2]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  15. ^ a b c d Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  16. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers