| 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: | plat- |
| DEFINITION: | To spread. Also plet - (oldest form *plet2-). Extension of pel-2.
Derivatives include flatter1, plant, plateau, platitude, and plaza.
1. Variant form *plad-. a. flat1, from Old Norse flatr, flat; b. flatter1, from Old French flater, to flatter. Both a and b from Germanic *flataz, flat. 2. Suffixed variant form *plad-yo-. flat2, from Old English flet(t), floor, dwelling, from Germanic *flatjam. 3. Basic form *plat-. flan, from Late Latin flad , flat cake, pancake, from Germanic *flath(n), flat cake. 4. flounder2, from Anglo-Norman floundre, flounder, from a Scandinavian source probably akin to Old Swedish flundra, flatfish, flounder, from Germanic suffixed nasalized form *flu-n-th-r-j-. 5. Nasalized form *pla-n-t-. clan, plan, plant, plantain1, plantar; plantigrade, supplant, transplant, from Latin planta, sole of the foot, and denominative plant re, to drive in with the sole of the foot, plant, whence planta, a plant. 6. Suffixed zero-grade form *p t()-u-. piazza, place, plaice, plane4, plane tree, plate, plateau, Plateresque, platina, platinum, platitude, platy2, platy-, plaza, from Greek platus, flat, broad. (Pokorny pl t- 833.) |
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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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