planto

Forms

plantō (present infinitive plantāre, perfect active plantāvī, supine plantātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin planta (“shoot, cutting”) + -ō.^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Columella has it once (10.119), in verse, of elecampane and giant fennel (inulae ferulaeque) being planted.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Pliny the Elder uses it three times, as of pomegranates and hazels propagated from suckers, and Palladius of garden plants.^[3][4][5] From the Old Latin Bible on it is common, with more than seventy instances in the Vulgate, which plants vineyards and groves^[3][5] and uses it figuratively for forming or creating: qui plantavit aurem, non audiet? “he who planted the ear, shall he not hear?” (Psalm 93:9).^[4][6] Augustine says the apostles planted churches,^[6] and Medieval Latin used it for erecting an altar, depositing relics and founding a monastery.^[7] The Romance verbs continue it: Italian piantare, French planter, Catalan plantar.^[3]

Timeline

• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of garden plants.^[3][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of propagating trees from suckers.^[3][4][8]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of planting vineyards and, figuratively, of creating.^[4][5][8]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of the apostles founding churches.^[6][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To plant, set; to propagate from cuttings, transplant.^[2][4][5][6]
2. To plant (a vineyard, a grove); to plant (ground) with trees.^[4][5]
3. (figurative) To fix in place; to form, create.^{[4][9][6][10]}
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To found, establish (churches).^[6]
5. (Medieval Latin) To erect (an altar); to deposit (relics); to found (a monastery).^[7]

Word family

• complantō
• dēplantō
• explantō
• plantātiō
• plantator
• supplantō
• trānsplantō
• implantō

Related words

• planta
• English plant

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
10. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson