Etymologically
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plata

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Forms

plata f (genitive platae); first declension[1][2] Polish Latin also writes platta, platha, placa and placta.[3]

Etymology

It is probably from Vulgar Latin *plattus (“flat”), a Vulgar Latin adjective formed on the model of Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “flat, broad”).[4][5] Köbler likewise refers it to the Greek adjective, which he traces to Proto-Indo-European *plat- (“broad, flat”).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates its first record to 941, in the documents of the Spanish March, and glosses the word as a plate or valuable piece of metal, silver, silverware, silver coin and plate armour.[2]

Semantic evolution

In medieval Latin it meant a plate or sheet of metal,[6] silver as a metal, objects made of silver, and plate armour.[1] Accounts of 1340 for the papal chamber record plates of gold weighed in marks, and in Poland it also meant a coin, a breastplate and the shaven circle of the tonsure.[3] Under the same spelling Du Cange records a kind of flat-bottomed boat,[6][1] and a toll whose name perhaps came from these boats.[6]

English took plate “flat sheet of gold or silver” from Old French in the mid-13th century, and the Old French word goes back to this Medieval Latin one.[4] In Spanish plata and Portuguese prata the word became the usual name of silver, through the shortening of a phrase meaning “plate of silver”.[4]

Timeline

  • 941 – First recorded, in the documents of the Spanish March.[2]
  • 1168 – A charter names a toll called plata.[6]
  • mid-13th century – English borrows Old French plate, from this word.[4]
  • 1340 – Accounts for the papal chamber record plates of gold, one weighing six marks.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Medieval Latin) A plate or bar of metal, especially of silver or gold; silver.[1][6][3]
  2. (Medieval Latin) Objects made of silver, plate.[1][2]
  3. (Medieval Latin) A coin.[3][2]
  4. (Medieval Latin) Plate armour; a breastplate.[1][3]
  5. (Medieval Latin) A kind of flat-bottomed boat.[6][1]
  6. (Medieval Latin) A bald patch; the tonsure.[3]

Usage notes

Du Cange also records plata for platea “town square” in a set of Italian town statutes.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  2. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
  4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  6. ^ a b c d e f g du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre