ply

ply¹ a layer, thickness; to fold

Etymology tree of ply¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin plico

English ply

From the same root · ply¹

Latin complico ← plico

Latin deplico ← plico

Latin explico ← plico

Latin implico ← plico

Etymology

The word for a fold or layer comes from French.^[2][3] The verb is inherited from Middle English plien (“to bend, fold”),^[4][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman plier, also pleier and ploier, and Middle French ployer, plier,^[2][5] from Latin plicō (“to fold, lay”).^[2][3][6][7] The Old French verb is recorded from 881, as pleier, to make someone yield, and it meant to fold by about 1100;^[2] the Anglo-Norman verb, from the early 12th century, already meant to fold, pleat and bend.^[5] The noun is borrowed from Middle French pli (“a fold”),^[8][3][9][2] from plier,^[2][9][7] the form of the verb built on its stressed stem;^[8] Etymonline takes it as an alteration of Old French ploi (“fold, pleat, layer”).^[3] Barnhart thinks the English noun was also partly shaped by the verb, or in some uses formed from it.^[8] The Latin verb comes from earlier *plecō and is related to plectō (“to twine, braid”);^[8][7] it is cognate with Gothic 𐍆𐌻𐌰𐌷𐍄𐌰 (flahta, “braid”), Old Norse flétta (“to plait”), Old High German flehtan and German flechten (“to braid”), all from Proto-Indo-European *plek- (“to plait”),^[8][10][3] the source also of fold and flax.^[8][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To bend or fold: before 1393, in Gower's Confessio Amantis, of a man who has bent his back to the harvest.^[4][2] Barnhart dates the verb to about 1380.^[8] The noun is recorded first in Scots, in 1450, for a person's condition, in the phrase in good ply, fit;^[2][9][12] the sense of a fold or layer of cloth follows before 1500, in Andrew of Wyntoun's chronicle.^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline date the noun to 1532 and the 1530s.^[8][3]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English verb meant to bend, fold or mould, and also, figuratively, to bend someone's will or to yield;^[4][2] Chaucer wrote that warm wax can be shaped with the hands (about 1395).^[4][2] These senses died out, except in dialect: in the 19th century ply still meant to bend or twist in Gloucestershire, the Isle of Wight and the South-West, and to bend or comply in Lancashire.^[13][9] The noun widened from a fold of cloth to a strand of rope or yarn and to any of the layers of a material.^[2][10] From 1575 it was a bend or joint, and by 1605, in Bacon, a bent of mind, a bias or inclination,^[2] the sense Johnson (1755) gave first.^[14] Counts such as three-ply describe material of so many layers or strands from 1832.^[2] Barnhart dates plywood to 1907,^[8] and ply alone has meant plywood since 1929.^[2] In 1959 computer scientists took the word for a single move by one side in a game, a half-move, as searched by a game-playing program.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1393 – to bend, fold or mould.^[4][2]
• c. 1395 – to bend or yield, in Chaucer.^[2][4]
• 1450 – noun, in Scots, condition, in the phrase in good ply.^[2]
• before 1500 – a layer or thickness of cloth, a fold.^[2] Barnhart dates the noun to 1532.^[8]
• 1575 – a bend; a joint in a limb.^[2]
• 1605 – a bent of mind, a bias (obsolete by 1881).^[2]
• 1832 – two-ply, three-ply, of so many layers or strands.^[2]
• 1907 – plywood.^[8]
• 1959 – in computing, a single move by one side in a game.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A layer or thickness, as of folded cloth, paperboard or a tire: a four-ply cardboard.^[15][10]
2. One of the strands twisted together to make yarn, rope or thread; often in combination, as two-ply wool.^[15][10]
3. One of the thin sheets of wood glued together to make plywood; also plywood itself.^[15][10][2]
4. (computing) A single move by one player in a game, a half-move.^[2]
5. (chiefly Scottish) Condition, fettle, in the phrase in good ply.^[10][2][9]
6. (obsolete, 1605–1881) A bias or inclination of mind.^[2][14][15]

Verb

1. To fold or double over, as cloth.^[15][10]
2. To twist together two or more single yarns.^[10][15]
3. (dialect) To bend or yield.^[9][13][2]

Word family

• plywood
• two-ply
• three-ply
• multi-ply
• cross-ply
• pliers

ply² to work at diligently; to travel regularly

Etymology

The verb meaning to work at is inherited from Middle English plien, a shortened form of applien (“to apply”),^{[4][2][3][10][9][7]} that is of apply without its first syllable.^[2][12] That verb is from Old French aplier, from Latin applicō (“to attach, apply”),^[16] a compound of plicō (“to lay, fold, twist”),^[16][3] so that Ayto counts this verb and ply in the sense of a fold as two distinct words that are ultimately related.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To apply oneself busily, and to use or wield a weapon or tool vigorously: both before 1393, in Gower's Confessio Amantis.^[2][4] Barnhart dates a sense "to cover" to about 1380 and "to use, employ, work busily at" to 1385.^[16]

Semantic evolution

The verb kept most of the senses of apply: to put something on or over another thing, which died out in the 15th century,^[2][4] to wield a tool or weapon, and to practise one's trade or work at a task, a sense recorded from before 1513.^[2][9] From 1548 it was used for working away at something, or attacking it repeatedly;^[2] from 1581 for urging a person with questions or requests, a sense Barnhart dates to 1587;^[2][16] and since 1602 for plying someone with food, drink or gifts to win them over.^[2][9] Milton used it intransitively in 1644, of reading with plying hard.^[9][2] At sea it came to mean to beat up against the wind, to tack,^[9][15] and Etymonline traces the sense "to travel regularly over the same course", recorded from 1803, perhaps to the earlier "to steer a course" of the 1550s.^[3] Weekley notes that this sense was originally nautical and was also used of the Thames watermen.^[17] The sense of soliciting custom, as in ply for hire, belongs to the same verb.^[11]

Timeline

• before 1393 – to apply oneself; to wield a tool or weapon.^[2][4]
• c. 1400 – to cover, put on or over (obsolete by 1450).^[2]
• before 1513 – to practise one's business or work at a task.^[2]
• 1548 – to work away at; to attack repeatedly.^[2]
• 1550s – to steer a course.^[3]
• 1581 – to urge or solicit a person persistently.^[2] Barnhart dates the sense to 1587.^[16]
• 1602 – to supply someone insistently with food, drink or gifts.^[2]
• 1803 – to travel regularly over a route.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To use or wield something diligently or vigorously: He plied his shovel until the path was clear.^[15][10][18]
2. To work steadily at; to practise, especially in ply one's trade.^[15][10][18]
3. To keep supplying someone with something, or to keep pressing them with it: Our hosts plied us with cake and coffee all evening.^[15][10][18]
4. To assail vigorously or repeatedly.^[15][10]
5. Of a ship, bus or the like, to travel a route regularly: The ferry plies between the two islands.^[15][18][3]
6. To sell goods, or to look for customers, at a regular place, as in ply for hire.^[18][11]
7. (nautical) To work against the wind by a zigzag course; to tack.^[15][9]

Word family

• plyingly