plat

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /plæt/
• Rhymes: -æt
• Homophones: plait, Platte

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

The noun is derived from Middle English plat, platte (“flat part of a sword; flat piece of ground, plot of ground”),^[1] probably a variant of Middle English plot,^[2] (modern English plot)^[3] and influenced by Middle English plat, plate^[4] (modern English plate) and Anglo-Norman, Middle French and Old French plat.^[5] See platy-, plaice, flat.

The verb is derived from the noun.^[6]

plat (plural plats)

1. A plot of land; a lot.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Ayre Rectified. With a Digression of the Ayre.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 2, member 3, page 220:

     The best ſoyle commonly yeelds the worſt Ayre, a dry ſandy plat is fitteſt to build upon, and ſuch as is rather hilly then plaine, full of Downes, a Cotſwald county, as being moſt commodious for hawking, hunting, wood, waters, and all manner of pleaſures.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 455–457:

     Such pleaſure took the Serpent to behold
     This Flourie Plat, the ſweet receſs of Eve
     Thus earlie, thus alone; [...]

   • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Blackbird”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza I, page 208:

     O Blackbird! sing me something well: / While all the neighbours shoot thee round, / I keep smooth plats of fruitful ground, / Where thou may’st warble, eat, and dwell.

   • 1913 April, Lela Angier Lenfest, “The Garden of ‘The Rosary’”, in Sunset: The Pacific Monthly, volume 30, number 4, San Francisco, Calif.: H. S. Crocker, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 353:

     [W]e come to a spot which must have been a favorite resting-place for the poet, a low stone seat under a huge live oak, with a formal plat of grass and a stone seat opposite.

2. A map showing the boundaries of real properties (delineating one or more plots of land), especially one that forms part of a legal document.
   • 1580, Richard Hakluyt, “Notes in Writing, besides More Priuie by Mouth, that were Giuen by M. Richard Hakluyt, […], Anno 1580: To M. Arthur Pet, and to M. Charles Iackman, Sent by the Merchants of the Moscouie Companie for the Discouerie of the Northeast Straight, […]”, in The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, […], London: […] George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, […], published 1589, →OCLC, page 460:

     For which cauſe I wiſh you to enter into conſideration of the matter, & to note all the Iſlands, and to ſet them downe in plat, to two ends: that is to ſay, That we may deuiſe to take the benefit by them, And alſo foreſee how by them the Sauages or ciuill Princes may in any ſort annoy us in our purpoſed trade that way.

   • 1888, John W[orth] Kern, official reporter, “The City of Indianapolis v. Patterson”, in Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Judicature of the State of Indiana, […], volume 112, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bowen-Merrill Co., law publishers, →OCLC, headnote:

     A husband can not, without authority from his wife, plat her land, and the fact that the land which he assumes to plat was omitted by mistake from a previous plat made and acknowledged by her can make no difference.

   • 1982, Robert N[eil] Corley, Peter J. Shedd, Charles F. Floyd, Real Estate and the Law, New York, N.Y.: Business Division, Random House, →ISBN, page 174; Charles F. Floyd, Marcus T. Allen, “Public Restrictions on Ownership”, in Real Estate Principles, 7th edition, Chicago, Ill.: Dearborn Real Estate Education, Dearborn Financial Publishing, 2002, →ISBN, page 75:

     The purpose of the preapplication conference is to allow the developer to meet informally with the planning board before going to the expense of preparing a formal plat.

   • 2005 November 23, Aharon N. Varady, “Bond Hill, Ohio, 1870–1903”, in Bond Hill: Origin and Transformation of a 19th Century Cincinnati Metro-Suburb, 10th edition, Cincinnati, Oh.: Henry Watkin Press & Cosmographic Design Initiates, →ISBN, page 76:

     In 1877, a formal plat of the unincorporated village was published [...]. The publication of the plat, seven years after the village was laid out, likely reflected the beginning of the process toward formal incorporation of the municipality.

3. (obsolete) A plot, a scheme.
   • 1582 July 9, Robert Bowes, “CCXXV.—‘To Sir Francis Walsingham, ix July 1583.’ From the Letter-Book, p. 223.”, in [Joseph] Stevenson, editor, The Correspondence of Robert Bowes, of Aske, Esquire, the Ambassador of Queen Elizabeth in the Court of Scotland (The Publications of the Surtees Society), London: J[ohn] B[owyer] Nichols and Son, […]; William Pickering, […]; Edinburgh: Laing and Forbes, published 1842, →OCLC, page 488:

     Besides some care is taken, so far as conveniently can be, both to give regard to the further spring of any matter tending to the entry or execution of any other or evil plat, and also upon the sight thereof, to have timely recourse to the King, to warn him and others to beware and provide for the seasonable prevention of the danger; [...]

   • 1589, George Puttenham, chapter XII, in The Arte of English Poesie: […], London: Printed by Richard Field, […], →OCLC; republished as Jos[eph] Haslewood, editor, The Arte of English Poesie, London: Printed by Harding and Wright, […], for Robert Triphook, […], 1811, →OCLC, book II (Of Proportion Poetical), page 90:

     [S]o shall our plat in this one point be larger and much surmount that which [Richard] Stanihurst first tooke in hand by his exameters dactilicke and spondaicke in the translation of Virgills Eneidos, [...]

• grassplat
• platband

plat (third-person singular simple present plats, present participle platting, simple past and past participle platted)

1. (transitive) To create a plat; to lay out property lots and streets; to map.
   • 1888, John W[orth] Kern, official reporter, “The City of Indianapolis v. Patterson”, in Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Judicature of the State of Indiana, […], volume 112, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bowen-Merrill Co., law publishers, →OCLC, headnote:

     A husband can not, without authority from his wife, plat her land, and the fact that the land which he assumes to plat was omitted by mistake from a previous plat made and acknowledged by her can make no difference.

   • 1902 June 19, Justice Horatio Rogers Jr., Edward C. Stiness, reporter, “Ellen Dawson et al. vs. Robert Broome”, in Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, volume 24, Providence, R.I.: E. L. Freeman & Sons, printers to the state, published 1903, →OCLC, page 371:

     He platted his land, extending the lateral lines of the lots south of Shore, or India street, indefinitely out into the river.

   • 1913 January 6, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, “Tesson v. H. K. Porter Co.”, in The Atlantic Reporter (National Reporter System, State Series), permanent edition, volume 86, St. Paul, Minn.: West Pub. Co., →OCLC, page 278:

     [...] it may vacate a street where the original Owner has merely platted his land to conform to streets already located and established by the municipality, where no lot has been sold by such owner prior to such vacation.

   • 2005, Carolyn Cartier, “San Francisco and the Left Coast”, in Carolyn Cartier, Alan A. Lew, editors, Seductions of Place: Geographical Perspectives on Globalization and Touristed Landscapes (Critical Geographies; 19), Abingdon, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 138:

     Vistas in San Francisco—a city whose real estate development platted out land geometrically and gridded over a series of hills—offer vertical, stunning viewscapes of architecture and the Bay, natural and built environments.

The noun is a variant of plait.^[7]

The verb is from Middle English platte, English plat, respectively archaic past and past participle forms of English pleat^[8] (a variant of plait),^[9] Middle English platten (“to braid, weave; plait; to fold”).^[10]

plat (countable and uncountable, plural plats)

1. A braid; a plait (of hair, straw, etc.).
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “A Louers Complaint”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […]‎^[1], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     Her haire nor looſe nor ti'd in formall plat, / Proclaimd in her a careleſſe hand of pride; [...]

   • c. 1806, record in the journals of Lewis and Clark, recorded in The United States Exploration Anthology (2013, →ISBN):

     they also wear a cap or cup on the head formed of beargrass and cedar bark. the men also frequently attatch^[sic] some small ornament to a small plat of hair on the center of the crown of their heads.

   • 1830, The Ladies’ Museum, volume 31, page 59:

     […] hair ornamented with a bandeau of gold on one side of the forehead, with a large pearl in the centre of the bandeau; on the opposite side is a plat of hair.

2. Material produced by braiding or interweaving, especially a material of interwoven straw from which straw hats are made.
   • 1824, “New Material for Straw Plat”, in The New England Farmer, volume 2, page 316:

     The large silver medal and twenty guineas, were this Session given to Miss Sophia Woodhouse, (Mrs. Wells,) of Weathersfield, in Connecticut, United States, for a new Material for Straw Plat.

   • 1829, “On British Leghorn Plat for Hats and Bonnets, by Lady Harriet Bernard”, in Gill’s Technological Repository, volume 4, page 381:

     Her Ladyship, in a letter to A. Aikin, Esq., […] dated Castle Bernard, Ireland, Oct. 19, 1827, states that she has made some improvement in the mode of preparing the rye-straw, which is the material for plat employed in the school under her ladyship’s patronage.

   • 1842, The Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, volume 23:

     Mr. Corston states that 781,605 straw hats had been imported from 1794 to 1803; and that in the last four years of that period 5281 lbs. of straw-plat, which was equal to 26,405 hats, had also been brought to this country.

   • 2000, Whittington Bernard Johnson, Race Relations in the Bahamas, 1784–1834:

     Eleuthera made palmetto plat for hats, arrowroot, and casaba starch.

   • 2002, John McAllister Ulrich, Signs of Their Times, →ISBN, page 45:

     The most detailed example of this particular mode of production occurs in the section of Cottage Economy devoted to the making of straw plat for hats, fashioned from raw material grown in England.

plat (third-person singular simple present plats, present participle platting, simple past and past participle platted)

1. (dated except regional England) To braid, to plait.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 27:29:

     And when they had platted a crowne of thornes, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, ſaying, haile king of the Jewes.

   • 1844, Thomas Jefferson Jacobs, Scenes, Incidents, and Adventures in the Pacific Ocean, page 349:

     A customer hailed him; he placed the stool on the ground, and the customer seated himself upon it, while the barber shaved his face, platted his hair, and washed his hands [...]

   • 2006, Elka Paquette, Taboo, →ISBN, page 100:

     She platted her hair in segments the night before, so that today she’d have a rippling effect through her hair.

   • 1828, William Cullen Bryant, “The Cascade of Melsingah”, in The Talisman, volume 1, New York, page 206:

     She carried in her hand a broad belt of wampum, and a white honeycomb from the hollow oak, and on her way she stopped and platted a garland of the gayest flowers of the season.

From Middle English plat, plate, platte (“flat; smooth; blunt, plain”),^[11] from Anglo-Norman, Middle French, and Old French plat (“(adjective) flat, level; calm; blunt, plain; (adverb) in a flat position; directly, straight; bluntly, plainly”), from Vulgar Latin *plattus (“flat; smooth”); further etymology uncertain, but possibly from Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “flat; wide”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“flat”).

The English word is cognate with French plat, Italian piatto, Middle Dutch plat (modern Dutch plat (“flat”)), Middle High German blat, plat, Middle Low German plat (modern German platt (“flat”)), Old Danish plat (modern Danish plat), Old Occitan plat (modern Occitan plat), Old Swedish plat (modern Swedish platt); and is a doublet of flat and pleyt.^[12]

plat (comparative more plat, superlative most plat)

1. (obsolete except Scotland) Flat; level; (by extension) frank, on the level.
   • 1889, Henry Morley, Early Prose Romances: The history of Reynard the Fox, page 149:

     But else, hold alway^[sic] your tail fast between your legs that he catch you not thereby; and hold down your ears lying plat after your head that he hold you not thereby; and see wisely to yourself.

   • 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company:

     But now, youngster, I have answered you freely, and I trow it is time that you answered me. Let things be plat and plain between us. I am a man who shoots straight at his mark.

   • 2011, Gordon Kendall, MHRA Tudor & Stuart Translations, volume 7.II: Gavin Douglas, The Aenid (1513) →ISBN, page 638:

     The whirling wheel and speedy swift axle-tree / Smat down to ground, and on the earth lay plat.

• bureau plat

plat (comparative more plat, superlative most plat)

1. (obsolete except Scotland) Flatly, plainly.

   Synonyms: bluntly, directly, straightforwardly

   • c. 1547‒1555, John Hooper, A Declaration of the Ten Commandments, published by the Parker Society in 1843:

     Fourth, see [that] thou hide nothing, nor dissemble, but speak plat, and plainly as much as thou knowest.

   • c. 1584‒1656, Joseph Hall:

     But single out, and say once plat and plain / That coy Matrona is a courtesan;

plat (plural plats)

1. Clipping of platform.

• x-plat

• plat-eye (etymologically unrelated)

• plat on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• plat (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “plat”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.
• “plat”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• PTAL, TLPA

Substantivization of the archaic adjective plat (“flat”), from Vulgar Latin *plattus, from Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús). Compare French plat.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈplat]

• Audio:

  (file)

plat m (plural plats)

1. plate
2. dish

• platada

• plata

• “plat” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Root
p-l-t
1 term

From Arabic بَلَاط (balāṭ).

plat m (collective, singulative plata f, plural platát)

1. a block of hard, white cheese made from the residue of halloumi

• Borg, Alexander (2004) A Comparative Glossary of Cypriot Maronite Arabic (Arabic–English) (Handbook of Oriental Studies; I.70), Leiden and Boston: Brill, page 166

• IPA^(key): [ˈplat]
• Rhymes: -at

From platit (“to pay”) derived from Proto-Slavic *platъ (“a piece of cloth”),^[1] as pieces of cloth were used as currency. Possibly cognate with plátno (“canvas, linen”).

plat m inan

1. salary

   Synonyms: mzda, gáže, výplata

   nástupní plat ― starting salary

   základní plat ― basic salary

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

plat

1. genitive plural of plato

• “plat”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “plat”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “plat”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech)

Borrowed via Middle Low German platt from Old French plat, from Vulgar Latin *plattus, which probably is loan from Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús), a cognate of Danish flad.

• IPA^(key): [ˈpʰl̥ad̥]

plat (plural and definite singular attributive platte)

1. inane, lacking inspiration, corny, insipid
   • 2016, Anne Strandvad, Vejen til Sofie, Lindhardt og Ringhof, →ISBN:

     De ting, hun lavede, var platte og måtte klemmes ud af pligt. Først når de andre spillede dem, blev de til andet end livløse slag på klaveret.

     The things she made were uninspired and had to be squeezed out by duty. It was only when others played them that they became anything else than lifeless beatings on the piano.

   • 2006, Min krønike: 1932-1979, Gyldendal A/S, →ISBN, page 150:

     Jeg fandt, at især de sidste fire linjer i visen var platte og stødende.

     I found that, in particular, the last four lines in the song were inane and offensive.

   • 2016, Jørgen Thorgaard, Kolonien, Lindhardt og Ringhof, →ISBN:

     Enhver var af den opfattelse, Ladegaards morsomheder var platte.

     Everyone was of the view that Ladegaard's jokes were corny.

   • 2011, Irene Oestrich, Slip bekymringerne, Politikens Forlag, →ISBN:

     ... at de syntes Carolines bemærkninger var platte, ...

     ... that they felt Caroline's remarks to be stupid, ...

   • 1986, Eske Holm, Den erotiske handel: roman:

     Mænds fascination af Martin berørte ham meget lidt. Han syntes dog bøsserne var besværlige – han syntes, de oftest var platte og seksuelt fikserede.

     The fascination that men held for Martin affected him very little. He did however feel that the gays were troublesome – he felt that they were most often insipid and sexually fixated.

Inflection of plat
	Positive	Comparative	Superlative
Indefinte common singular	plat	plattere	plattest2
Indefinite neuter singular	plat	plattere	plattest2
Plural	platte	plattere	plattest2
Definite attributive1	platte	plattere	platteste
1) When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite, the corresponding "indefinite" form is used. 2) The "indefinite" superlatives may not be used attributively.

• plathed

• IPA^(key): /plɑt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑt

From Middle Dutch plat, from Old French plat, from Vulgar Latin *plattus.

plat (comparative platter, superlative platst)

1. flat

   De wereld is niet plat.

   The world is not flat.

2. of soft consistency

   platte kaas

   soft cheese (quark, creamy cheese)

   platte kak

   soft stool

Declension of plat
uninflected	plat
inflected	platte
comparative	platter
		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		plat	platter	het platst het platste
indefinite	m./f. sing.	platte	plattere	platste
	n. sing.	plat	platter	platste
	plural	platte	plattere	platste
definite		platte	plattere	platste
partitive		plats	platters	—

• platbranden
• plattegrond

• Afrikaans: plat
• Berbice Creole Dutch: plati
• → Papiamentu: plat
• → Sranan Tongo: plata (see there for further descendants)

From Platduits. Cognate to German Platt n (“dialect”).

plat n (uncountable)

1. dialect; one’s local dialect

   Kan jij plat praten?

   Can you speak the dialect?

   • 2015, Frans Kellendonk. Verzamelt werk. 2nd ed. (as e-book; original 1st ed. printed 2015), Querido, 2015 (→ISBN; preview at Google Books)

     De taal is een Bordewijkse kunsttaal, de figuren zijn geen herkenbare mensen, het plat dat ze spreken is een synthetisch plat.

     The language is a Bordewijkian artificial language, the figures are not recognisable people, the dialect that they speak is a synthetic dialect. [Note: Bordewijk is a Netherlandic surename.]

plat (comparative platter, superlative platst)

1. dialectal; as one’s local dialect

   In de realityserie Oh Oh Cherso spraken de deelnemers plat Haags.

   The participants in the reality show Oh Oh Cherso spoke dialectal Dutch from The Hague.

2. (by extension) common, rural, vulgar

   een platte mop

• → Indonesian: pèlat
• → Malay: pélat

• lapt

Inherited from Middle French plat, from Old French plat, from Vulgar Latin *plattus, from Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “broad, flat”).

• IPA^(key): /pla/

• Audio:

  (file)

plat (feminine plate, masculine plural plats, feminine plural plates)

1. flat

• → Romanian: plat

plat m (plural plats)

1. a flat area of ground; a flat thing; a flat dish or receptacle
2. dish or course (e.g. served in a restaurant)
   • 1769, Voltaire, Mémoires:

     Ce plat de champignons a changé la destinée de l’Europe.

     This mushroom dish has changed the destiny of Europe.

• mets

• “plat”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

plat

1. Romanization of 𐍀𐌻𐌰𐍄

plat

1. plat: flat; level; (by extension) frank, on the level.
   • c. 1386–1390, John Gower, “Book I”, in Reinhold Pauli, editor, Confessio Amantis of John Gower: Edited and Collated with the Best Manuscripts, volume I, London: Bell and Daldy […], published 1857, →OCLC, page 57:

     He lith down his one ere al plat / Unto the grounde and halt it faſte [...]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 1400, John Lydgate, poem, commented upon by Thomas Gray and printed in The Works of Thomas Gray, volume 5, page 305:

     But, crying mercy, the emperour lay plat on the ground.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

plat

1. plat: flatly, plainly
   • c. 1360s (date written)​, Geffray Chaucer [i.e., Geoffrey Chaucer], “The Romaunt of the Rose”, in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London: […] Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], published 1542, →OCLC, folio clxv, verso, column 1:

     But, ſir, ye lye, I tel you plat [...]

     But, sir, you lie, I tell you plainly […]

From Vulgar Latin *plattus (“flattened”).

plat oblique singular, m (oblique plural plaz or platz, nominative singular plaz or platz, nominative plural plat)

1. a footbridge

Borrowed from French plat.

• IPA^(key): [plat]

plat m or n (feminine singular plată, masculine plural plați, feminine and neuter plural plate)

1. flat, level, even

plat n (plural plate)

1. level tone, first tone (in Hanyu pinyin)

• tonul plat

• IPA^(key): [plat]

plat m inan (related adjective platový, diminutive platík, augmentative platisko)

1. salary

   Synonym: mzda

• platovo adv

• platiť
• výplata

• “plat”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2024

Borrowed from English flat.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈplat/ [ˈplat̪̚]
• Rhymes: -at
• Syllabification: plat

plat (Baybayin spelling ᜉ᜔ᜎᜆ᜔)

1. flat

   Synonym: patag

• “plat”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018