Saturday, April 18, 2015

A-to-Z Challenge: P

Today’s word is plant because I wanted to etymologize it a long time ago and there wasn’t enough for one of my regular etymology posts. Perfect for here, though.


There are lots of plants. Green plants. Power plants. It’s also a word for burying or establishing or setting something somewhere or a million other synonyms. Plant—the kind that grows outside (or the act of putting something in the ground)—comes from the Old English plante, which was what they used for freshly planted herbs or young trees/shrubs. It comes from the classical Latin planta, which means (shockingly enough) plant. That word is also another word for sole, as in the sole of your foot, which means that plant may have its name because we walk on them with the soles of our feet and OMG that’s why, isn’t it?

Sources
Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

12 comments:

  1. Who knew plant was so complex - I always forget how many different things it can mean and all think of a little potted plant for some reason :)
    Tasha
    Tasha's Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)

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  2. That came straight down the line! However, I had a kid step on ours with the soles of his feet in our garden and that didn't go down well at all.

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  3. I think your logic is spot on, J E. ;)

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  4. And you can plant a mole in a rival political campaign...

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  5. Wow, one that makes sense and isn't extremely complicated.

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  6. Fun to read your conclusion about the word plant :) After shopping all morning, I plan to plant myself on the couch for a little rest :)

    betty

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  7. Thats cool. This week I just visited the Svalbard archipelago up north, where they have a seed bank inside a perma-frost mountain. They store seed for all the plants in the world, just in case >:)

    Cold As Heaven

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  8. Well, I guess it's one of those things that's so ubiquitous that there's no reason to change the word.

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  9. I guess that comes from planting your feet on the ground, huh?

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  10. Well, this was fun! I don't know which came first, the word for plants or the word plant for the sole of the foot, but I enjoyed reading about it. :)

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