| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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Appendix I
Indo-European Roots |
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| ENTRY: | pel -2 |
| DEFINITION: | Flat; to spread. Oldest form *pel2-; variant *ple2-, colored to *pla2-, contracted to *pl -.
Derivatives include field, planet, plasma, plastic, and polka.
1. Suffixed form *pel()-tu-. field, from Old English feld, open field, from Germanic *felthuz, flat land. 2. Suffixed form *pel()-t-es- (by-form of *pel()-tu-). a. feldspar, from Old High German feld, field; b. veldt, from Middle Dutch veld, velt, field. Both a and b from Germanic *feltha-, flat land. 3. Variant form *pl-. a. Suffixed form *pl-ru-. floor, from Old English fl r, floor, from Germanic *flruz, floor; b. suffixed form *pl-no-. llano, piano2, plain, planarian, plane1, plane2, plane3, planish, plano-, planula; esplanade, explain, pianoforte, from Latin plnus, flat, level, even, plain, clear. 4. Suffixed zero-grade form *p -m-. palm1, palm2, palmary, from Latin palma (< *palama), palm of the hand. 5. Possibly extended variant form *plan-. a. planet; aplanatic, from Greek plansthai, to wander (< “to spread out”); b. perhaps Germanic *flan-. flâneur, from French flâner, to walk the streets idly, from a source akin to Old Norse flana, to wander aimlessly. 6. Suffixed zero-grade form *pl-dh-. –plasia, plasma, –plast, plaster, plastic, plastid, –plasty; dysplasia, metaplasm, toxoplasma, from Greek plassein (< *plath-yein), to mold, “spread out.” 7. O-grade form *pol-. a. polynya, from Russian poly , open; b. Polack, polka, from Slavic polje, broad flat land, field. (Pokorny pel- 805.) See also extensions plk-1 and plat-. |
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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