English
plan
Plan comes from French plan ‘flat surface, ground plot, map’, and goes back to Latin plānus.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplānus
- Frenchc. 1600–presentplan‘flat surface’
- Englishearliest quotation 1815plan
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplānus
- Frenchc. 1600–presentplan‘flat surface’
- Englishearliest quotation 1815plan
Earliest quotation: 1815, William Wordsworth: “The simple plan, / That they should take who…”
The story
Some sources also argue for influence or alteration of French plant, from plantar, from Latin plantāre (‘set, fix in place’).
Linked words
through Latin plānus
explain, explanation, plain, explanatory, esplanade, llano, 15 more
Today it means
noun A drawing showing technical details of a building, machine, etc., with unwanted details omitted, and often using symbols rather than detailed drawing to represent doors, valves, etc.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin plānus / plan