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plat

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Etymology and origin of the English word plat

Pronunciation

plat1 braid

Confidence
Probable
First attested
1300s
From
Anglo-Norman pleit via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin plicō

Etymology

The verb meaning to braid is inherited from Middle English platen, an alteration of plaiten (“to fold, braid”),[2][3] perhaps influenced by plat (“flat”);[2] see plait.[4][5][6] The OED explains it instead as originally a generalized past tense and past participle of pleat, itself a variant of plait.[7] Plait is from Anglo-Norman pleit (“fold”), from Latin plicō (“to fold”).[4][3] The noun is a variant of plait.[7][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To interweave: late 14th century in Etymonline,[4] 14th century in Merriam-Webster.[2] The OED's first record is the sense "to fold, pleat", before 1425, in the Medulla Grammatice.[7]

Semantic evolution

After the sense "to fold" (obsolete), the verb settled in the sense of braiding hair or straw, recorded from about 1533,[7] and the noun plat, a plait, followed in 1609, in Shakespeare's A Lover's Complaint.[7] Sailors used plat for a flat braided rope that protects a cable from chafing (1620 to 1841).[7][6] The OED now calls the verb chiefly English regional and the noun rare,[7] and Collins treats both as dialect spellings of plait.[8]

Timeline

  • late 14th century – to interweave.[4][2]
  • before 1425 – to fold, pleat (obsolete).[7]
  • c. 1533 – to braid hair or straw.[7]
  • 1609 – noun, a plait.[7][6]
  • 1620 – nautical, a braided rope against chafing (obsolete by 1841).[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (dialect) A plait or braid of hair or straw.[8][2][7]

Verb

  1. (dialect) To plait or interweave; to make by braiding.[8][2][6]

Word family

  • unplat

plat2 plot of land; map

Confidence
Probable
First attested
1435 Records of the Borough of Nottingham
From
Old French plat

Etymology

The piece of ground is probably a variant of plot,[7][4][2][3][6][9] assimilated to plat (“flat”),[4][7][3] which is from Old French plat (“flat, stretched out”).[4][7] The OED explains the change by the association of a plot of ground with a flat area, and of a plan with a flat sheet of paper, and notes that plat is recorded earlier than plot in the senses of plan, map and scheme.[7] Dictionary.com sees it as reinforced by Middle English plat, the flat of a sword.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small area of ground: 1435, in the records of the borough of Nottingham.[7] Etymonline dates it to the mid-15th century,[4] and both note it earlier in English place and field names, such as de la Platte in Worcestershire (1241).[7][4]

Semantic evolution

From a piece of ground the word passed to a ground plan of an area or building, and to a map or chart (1508).[7][6] In the 16th century it also meant an outline or sketch (1525), a scheme or stratagem (1574) and the plot of a play or poem (1589), senses later taken over by plot.[7] The verb, to plan or devise (1556), came to mean to make a map of land and to divide it on a plan (1589);[7][2] both noun and verb now survive mainly in the United States,[7][6] where a plat is a detailed plan of a piece of land showing its divisions into lots.[2] Johnson (1755) called it a small piece of ground, "more properly plot", quoting Milton's "flow'ry plat".[11] In dialect it is still a plot or garden bed in many counties from Scotland to Cornwall.[12]

Timeline

  • 1435 – a small area of land.[7] Etymonline dates it to the mid-15th century.[4]
  • 1508 – a ground plan; a map or chart.[7]
  • 1525 – an outline or sketch (obsolete by 1721).[7]
  • 1556 – verb, to plan or devise (obsolete).[7][2]
  • 1574 – a scheme or stratagem (obsolete by 1658).[7]
  • 1589 – verb, to make a map of; to lay out land on a plan.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small piece of ground; a plot.[8][2][7]
  2. (US) A detailed map or plan of a piece of land, showing its division into lots, streets and other features.[2][7][6]

Verb

  1. (US) To make a plat of; to lay out land on a plan: The town was platted in a grid of square blocks.[2][7][6]

Word family

  • grassplat

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ 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)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Plat.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/plat. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

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