Etymology and origin of the Romanian word plântă
- Confidence
- Disputed
- Formation
- Borrowing
- First attested
- 1683 Dosoftei's Viața și petrecerea sfinților More words from the 17th century
- Borrowed from
- Latin planta
- Ultimate origin
- Latin planta
Forms
plântă f (plural plânte)[1]
Etymology
Tiktin takes it as borrowed from Latin planta (“sole of the foot”), a learned loan probably made by Dosoftei himself, and Scriban calls it probably a neologism of Dosoftei.[2][3] Ciorănescu says it could be a learned word but compares împlânta.[4] MDA2, the DLR and Wiktionary give it simply as the Latin word, and Wiktionary counts it inherited.[5][6][1] It is the doublet of plantă “plant”, borrowed from French plante.[4][1]
The Latin noun is traced to Proto-Indo-European *pléh₂-n̥t-eh₂, from *pleh₂- (“flat”).[1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *plānt-ā- and leaves the root open between “the flat one” and “the approaching one”.[7] The Latin word lives on in Romance as Italian pianta “sole of the foot”, and French has the same word for the sole as for the plant.[8][9]
Earliest recorded meaning
The word appears only in Dosoftei's lives of the saints, printed in Iași from 1682.[5][4] In the December volume the saint's soles are left imprinted where he stood: „În loc ce stătusă au rămas tipărite plântele lui”; a gloss explains the word as palmele.[2][6]
Timeline
- 1683 – plântele “the soles” in Dosoftei's Viața și petrecerea sfinților.[2][5]
- 1939 – Scriban records it as an old word for the sole.[3]
Meanings
Noun
Related words
- plantă
- împlânta
- talpă
Usage notes
MDA2 and the DLR also list plântă as an old variant of plantă “plant”.[5][11]
References
- ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. plântă
- ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 999
- ^ a b c d Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. plîntă
- ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 414
- ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. plântă
- ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
- ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6576
- ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ Bulgăr, Gheorghe; Constantinescu-Dobridor, Gheorghe (2002), Dicționar de arhaisme și regionalisme, 2 vols., București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. plântă
- ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. plantă
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Plântă.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/pl%C3%A2nt%C4%83. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.
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