English
plateau
Plateau comes from French plat ‘a plate’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- ‘to spread, extend’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pleth₂-‘to spread, extend’root as named · steps between not traced
- Frenchc. 1600–presentplat‘a plate’
- French, derivedc. 1600–presentplateaudiminutive of plat
- Englishearliest quotation 2008same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pleth₂-‘to spread, extend’root as named · steps between not traced
- Frenchc. 1600–presentplat‘a plate’
- French, derivedc. 1600–presentplateaudiminutive of plat
- Englishearliest quotation 2008same form
Earliest quotation: 2008, Tara Parker-Pope, Hint of Hope as Child Obesity Rate Hits Plateau: “Childhood obesity, rising for more than two decades, appears…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- ‘to spread, extend’
plane, flat, platinum, plaza, collateral, piazza, lateral, plantain, flan, plaice, 14 more
through French plat ‘a plate’
Today it means
noun A largely level expanse of land at a high elevation; tableland.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- / plateau