English
plight
Plight comes from Middle English plit ‘fold, wrinkle, bad situation’.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500plit‘fold, wrinkle, bad situation’
- Englishearliest quotation 1590plight
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500plit‘fold, wrinkle, bad situation’
- Englishearliest quotation 1590plight
Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book III, Canto VII: “All wayes shee sought him to restore to plight,…”
Every English word from Middle English plit
Another origin of plight
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*plehan‘to be responsible for’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanic, derivedc. 200–500 CE*plihti‘care, responsibility, duty’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150pliht‘peril, risk, danger, damage, plight’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500plight‘risk, danger’
- Englishtodayplight
A suffixed form of the root represented by Old English pleoh (‘risk, danger, hurt, peril"; also "responsibility’) and plēon (‘to endanger, risk’).
Today it means
noun A dire or unfortunate situation.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English plit / plight