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plait

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Etymology and origin of the Old French word plait

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
842 Oaths of Strasbourg More words from the 9th century
Inherited from
Latin placitum
Ultimate origin
Latin placeō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin placeō
Italian piacere
Old French plaisir
French plaisir
English please
English pleasure
Romanian plăcea
Spanish placer
Latin placitus
Latin placitum
Old French plait
From the same root
Latin displiceō ← placeō
Latin placibilis ← placeō
Latin plācidus ← placeō
Latin plācō ← placeō
Italian spiacere ← piacere
English pleasurable ← plaisir
Romanian plăcere ← plăcea

Forms

plait m (oblique plural plaiz, plaitz; nominative singular plaiz, plaitz)[1]

The Oaths of Strasbourg write plaid.[5] Chrétien's manuscripts have plait, pleit and plet, nominative plez.[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin placitum (“opinion, decree”),[1][6][7] the neuter of placitus, past participle of placeō (“to please”).[8][9] In classical Latin the plural meant tenets or principles; in the Latin of the Church the word came to mean a plan or resolution and an agreement or pact, and in medieval texts a summons to court, an assembly, a court session and a lawsuit.[9] Etymonline suggests the sense moved from what pleases to what pleases both sides and then to what has been decided.[10] Old Occitan had plag and plait.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is plaid in the Oaths of Strasbourg of 842, where it means an agreement or engagement.[9][5][6] The Vie de saint Alexis, about 1090, has plait in the same sense.[6][11][12]

Semantic evolution

In the Chanson de Roland the word names the assembly gathered round the Frankish king, sitting as a court, and a trial;[9] a quarrel follows in Gaimar about 1140, speech in Wace about 1150, and tenir les plaiz "to hold court" in the Roman d'Eneas about 1160.[9] In Chrétien de Troyes it is mostly talk and discussion, with phrases such as sanz plus de plet "without more ado": Si vont couchier sanz plus de plet "so they go to bed without more ado".[4] Feudal law used it for a due paid when a fief changed hands.[6]

The judicial sense lasted longest: tenir les plaids "to hold a court session" is recorded from about 1200 until the Académie's dictionary of 1798.[6] The derivative plaidoier "to plead" dates from the 13th century and gave modern French plaidoyer.[7]

Timeline

  • 842 – plaid "agreement" in the Oaths of Strasbourg.[5][9]
  • c. 1090 – plait in the Vie de saint Alexis.[12][11]
  • c. 1100 – the king's court and a trial, in the Chanson de Roland.[9][13]
  • 1100–1133 – the AND's first citation.[2]
  • c. 1140 – "quarrel" in Gaimar's Estoire des Engleis.[9]
  • c. 1150 – "speech, words" in Wace's Vie de saint Nicolas.[9]
  • c. 1160 – tenir les plaiz "to hold court" in the Roman d'Eneas.[9]
  • c. 1170 – plet in Erec et Enide.[4][14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. an agreement, covenant, engagement.[6][15][1]
  2. a court, an assembly of justice; a court session.[9][2][6]
  3. a lawsuit, trial;[2][9] (law) a plea, pleading.[2][9]
  4. the Last Judgement.[2][16]
  5. a dispute, quarrel; a fight.[16][2]
  6. speech, words, discussion; a matter, affair.[4][2][15]
  7. (feudal) a due paid when a fief changed hands.[6]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word plai, dates its first citation to the first third of the 12th century, and lists some thirty spellings, among them plaid, plait, plé, plee, pleit, plest, plet, pley and plyt.[2] Insular law made it the action at law, the plea and the pleading, the record of cases and the session of a court, and the right to hold pleas granted by the king as a franchise.[2] English plea goes back to Middle English ple "lawsuit", of the early 13th century, from the Anglo-Norman form plai.[10]

Descendants

  • Middle French plaid (→ French plaid)[17][9]
  • Dutch pleit (borrowed)[1]
  • Middle English ple (borrowed; → English plea)[10]
  • plaidier

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch, Godefroy and the DÉCT head the word plait, the AND plai, Foerster's glossary plet, and the DMF and the TLFi plaid.[4][2] Modern French plaid "tartan blanket" has a separate source: it was borrowed from English in the 17th and 18th centuries.[9][18]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. plai
  3. ^ FROLEX 3.0, lexique morphologique du français médiéval (IXe–XVe s.), Base de français médiéval, ENS de Lyon (from the BFM, the Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam and the DMF), github.com/sheiden/Medieval-French-Language-Toolkit
  4. ^ a b c d e f Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. plait
  5. ^ a b c Rainsford, Thomas (2025), Old Gallo-Romance Corpus, github (the earliest Gallo-Romance texts, lemmatised; texts by siglum), p. Serments
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9:6
  7. ^ a b Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 748
  8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. placitum
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  10. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ a b Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. AlexisS2
  12. ^ a b Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. plait
  13. ^ Stein, Achim; Kunstmann, Pierre; Gleßgen, Martin-D., eds., Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam, version 4 (lemmatised corpus of Old French texts, after A. Dees), Universität Stuttgart, github.com/michaniets/NCA (texts by DEAF siglum), p. RolS
  14. ^ Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. ErecF
  15. ^ a b Greimas, Algirdas Julien (1979), Dictionnaire de l'ancien français jusqu'au milieu du XIVe siècle, 2nd ed., Paris: Larousse (printing of 1988), p. s.v. plait
  16. ^ a b Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 7:1069
  17. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. plaid
  18. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 530

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Plait.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fro/plait. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

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