plot

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /plɒt/, US /plɑːt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old English plot (“small piece of ground”), of unknown origin.^[2][3][4][5] Plat is a Middle English collateral form.^[2][4] The sense “secret plan” was probably influenced by the chance likeness of complot, from 1577,^[3][2] from Old French complot “dense crowd, combined plan”, itself of unknown origin,^[3][2][4] perhaps a back-formation from compeloter “to roll into a ball”.^[2] Hoad treats the senses “ground”, “plan” and “conspiracy” as having separate sources.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small piece of ground: probably before 1100, in late Old English.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

A ground plan, map or chart is from 1551,^[3][6] the 1550s in Etymonline.^[2] A plan or scheme is from 1587, and a secret plan or conspiracy from 1594, in Shakespeare's Richard III;^[3] the OED suggests the sense became widely known through the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.^[2][7] The plan of events of a play or story is from 1649, in Lovelace's Poems,^[3] the 1640s in Etymonline,^[2] and the plot thickens comes from this sense.^[7] The verb, to make a plan or diagram of, is from 1588, in Spenser,^[3][6] and to lay plans, conspire, from 1589.^[3] A graph of two variables is from 1912.^[6] Plot-line is from 1940.^[2]

Timeline

• a. 1100 – a piece of ground.^[3][6]
• 1551 – a ground plan, map.^[3][6]
• 1577 – complot.^[3]
• 1588 – verb, to map.^[3][6]
• 1594 – a conspiracy.^[3]
• 1605 – the Gunpowder Plot.^[7]
• 1649 – the plot of a story.^[3]
• 1912 – a graph.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A secret plan to do something unlawful or harmful; a conspiracy.
2. The main sequence of events in a novel, play or film.
3. A small piece of ground used for a purpose: a vegetable plot.
4. A ground plan or diagram; a graph.

Verb

1. To plan secretly; to conspire.
2. To mark (points or a course) on a chart or graph.
3. To work out the events of (a story).

Word family

• plotlessness
• plotless
• plotful
• by-plot
• counterplot
• marplot
• plotline
• plottage

Related words

• plotter
• plat
• complot

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