English
pleach
Pleach comes from Old French plaissier ‘to dispute’, and goes back to Latin plexus ‘braided, plaited, woven’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplexus‘braided, plaited, woven’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CE*plaxusreconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400plaissier‘to dispute’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pleshe
- Englishearliest quotation 1599pleach
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history not traced here.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplexus‘braided, plaited, woven’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CE*plaxusreconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400plaissier‘to dispute’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pleshe
- Englishearliest quotation 1599pleach
Earliest quotation: 1599, William Shakespeare, The Life of Henry the Fift: “Her Vine, the merry chearer of the heart, /…”
The story
The verb is from Late Middle English pleshe, Middle English plechen, pleche (‘to layer; to propagate (a plant) by layering, to pleach’), possibly from Anglo-Norman and Middle French plesser, plessier, Middle French plescer, variants of Middle French, Old French plaissier, plessier (‘to plash’), from Late Latin *plaxus, from Latin plexus (‘braided, plaited, woven; bent, twisted’), perfect passive participle of plectō (‘to braid, plait, weave; to bend, turn, twist’).
Linked words
through Latin plexus ‘braided, plaited, woven’
Today it means
verb To unite by interweaving, as (horticulture) branches of shrubs, trees, etc., to create a hedge; to interlock, to plash.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin plexus / pleach