Etymologically
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platform

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈplæt.fɔːm/, US /ˈplæt.fɔːrm/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French plate-forme (“ground plan, diagram”), literally “flat form”,[2][3][4] from Old French plat “flat, level” (feminine plate) and forme “form”.[2][3][5] It is related to plate, plateau and form.[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A plan of action, scheme, design: the 1540s in Etymonline,[2] 1550 in the OED and Barnhart, in Bishop Gardiner's letters.[6][3] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1531.[4]

Semantic evolution

In geometry it was a plane figure (1551), and also a ground plan or drawing (1550s), senses now obsolete,[6][2] which later went with plan.[2] A raised level surface is from the 1550s,[2] with the mounting of guns in 1560,[3] and of any raised floor of planks from 1727.[3] The railway platform is from 1832.[2] The American political sense, a statement of a party's policies issued by its convention, is from 1803,[2] probably from the literal platform on which politicians stood to speak, and perhaps influenced by the earlier English “set of rules governing church doctrine” (1570s).[2] Trench noted that the word had lost this sense in England but kept it in America.[7] In the 19th century it was used generally of public speaking.[2] In computing, a platform is the hardware or software on which programs run.[8][9]

Timeline

  • 1531 – first known use.[4]
  • 1550 – a plan of action.[6][3]
  • 1560 – a gun platform.[3]
  • 1570s – a church's rules of doctrine.[2]
  • 1727 – a raised floor.[3]
  • 1803 – a party's policies.[2]
  • 1832 – a railway platform.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A raised horizontal surface, such as a stage for speakers or a landing beside railway tracks.
  2. A formal declaration of the principles of a political party.
  3. A place or opportunity for making views known.
  4. In computing, the basic hardware or software on which applications run.
  5. A structure for drilling oil at sea.
  6. A thick sole on a shoe.

Word family

  • platformless
  • platform balance
  • platform bed
  • platform car
  • platform rocker
  • platform scale
  • platform shoe
  • platform tennis

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 n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
  8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press