PLOT

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tcward
Wordmaster
Posts: 789
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:18 pm
Location: The Old North State

PLOT

Postby tcward » Sat Sep 16, 2006 10:18 pm

We hear the word "plot" almost every day, especially since the World Trade Center towers came down. A Google search for the phrase "terrorist plot" yields over a million hits.

My favorite etymology site says:
plot
O.E. plot "small piece of ground," of unknown origin. Sense of "ground plan," and thus "map, chart" is 1551; that of "plan, scheme" is 1587, probably by accidental similarity to complot, from O.Fr. complot "combined plan," of unknown origin, perhaps a back-formation from compeloter "to roll into a ball." Meaning "set of events in a story" is from 1649. The verb is first attested 1589 in the sense of "to lay plans for" (usually with evil intent); 1590 in the lit. sense of "to make a map or diagram."
(I had never run across the term "complot" before! Looks interesting...)

-Tim

Stargzer
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2578
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
Location: Crownsville, MD

Postby Stargzer » Sat Sep 16, 2006 11:01 pm

Yes, interesting . . .

One-Look Dictionary
Quick definitions (complot)

verb: engage in plotting or enter into a conspiracy, swear together
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Main Entry: [sup]1[/sup]com·plot
Pronunciation: 'käm-"plät
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French complot crowd, plot
archaic : PLOT, CONSPIRACY

Main Entry: [sup]2[/sup]com·plot
Pronunciation: k&m-'plät, käm-
Function: verb
archaic : PLOT
1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica
PLOT, a term originally meaning a space of ground used for a specific purpose, especially as a building site, formerly in frequent usage in the sense of a plan, a surveyed space of ground; hence the literary sense of a plan or design. The word is of doubtful origin; there is a collateral form "plat," which appears in the 16th century, according to the New English Dictionary, under the influence of "plat," flat place, surface (Fr. plat, Late Lat. plattus, probably from Gr. 7rXarin, broad). Skeat (Etym. Did.) refers "plot," in the sense of a space of ground, to the O. Eng. plaec, Mid. Eng. Aleck, later platch, patch. "Plot," in the sense of plan, scheme, would then be identical with "plot," a conspiracy, which may be a shortened form of "complot," a French word, also of doubtful origin, meaning in the 12th century "a compact body of men"; in the 14th century "conspiracy."
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee


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