plate

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pleɪt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English plate,^[2] borrowed from Old French plate (“thin piece of metal”) (late 12th century), a noun use of the feminine of plat “flat”,^[3][4][2] and directly from Medieval Latin plata (“plate, piece of metal; plate armour”),^[3][4][5] probably from Vulgar Latin *plattus,^[3][4] perhaps formed on the model of Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “flat, broad”),^[3][4][2][6] from Proto-Indo-European *plat- (“to spread”).^[3] Hoad calls Medieval Latin plattus of unknown origin.^[7] The sense “dish” is partly from Old French plat “platter, dish of meat”.^[7][6][5] The Spanish cognate plata and Portuguese prata became the usual words for “silver”.^[3] It is related to place, platter, plateau and platform.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A gold or silver coin, a flat sheet of gold or silver: about 1250 in Barnhart, in Genesis and Exodus,^[4] the mid-13th century in Etymonline.^[3] A flat sheet of metal: about 1290 in the OED, about 1300 in Barnhart.^[8][4]

Semantic evolution

Plate armour is from the 14th century,^[3][8] and table utensils, originally only of gold or silver, from the 14th century.^[7][3] A shallow dish for food is from 1415 in Barnhart^[4] and the mid-15th century in Etymonline,^[3] at first of metal or wood and now usually of china.^[3] Articles covered with a plating of precious metal are from the 1540s.^[3] Plates of other substances are from 1665,^[8] and in anatomy and zoology thin flat structures from 1658.^[8] Plate glass is from 1727–41.^[4][3] In photography a sheet of glass for the image is from 1840,^[3] and in baseball home base from 1857.^[3] The geological plate is from 1904, and plate tectonics from 1967.^[3][8] The verb, to cover with metal plates, is from about 1380, in Chaucer,^[4][8] and to coat with a thin layer of metal from before 1704.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – a gold or silver coin.^[4]
• c. 1290 – a sheet of metal.^[8]
• c. 1380 – verb, to cover with plates.^[4][8]
• 1415 – a dish.^[4]
• 1540s – plated articles.^[3]
• 1727 – plate glass.^[4]
• 1840 – a photographic plate.^[3]
• 1857 – home plate in baseball.^[3]
• 1904 – a tectonic plate.^[3][8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A flat, usually round dish from which food is eaten or served, or the food on it.
2. A smooth, flat, thin sheet of metal or other rigid material.
3. Dishes and utensils made of or coated with gold or silver.
4. A sheet of metal with a design for printing, or a printed illustration in a book.
5. (geology) Any of the large rigid pieces of the Earth's lithosphere.
6. (baseball) Home plate.
7. A thin layer of metal applied to a surface.

Verb

1. To coat with a thin layer of metal, such as gold or silver.
2. To cover with armour plates.

Word family

• plater
• platelike
• plateless
• electroplate
• plating

Related words

• platter
• plateau
• platform
• platitude
• place

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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press