Etymologically
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plate

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 23:54. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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

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