"P" Word Origins

plonker

Origin

From plonk + -er.

plop

Origin

An imitative word, formed to copy the sound itself.

plot

Old English

From Old English "plot", originally meaning a patch of ground; the sense of a secret scheme and the sense of a story's structure both developed later as figurative extensions.

plough

Old English

From Old English "plōh" and Old Norse "plógr", both going back to a shared Germanic root for the farming tool.

ploughland

Origin

From Middle English plowelond, plouȝ-lond, plow-land, equivalent to plough + land. Compare German Pflugland, Old Norse plógsland (“ploughland”).

ploy

Origin

Possibly a shortened form of "employ" or "deploy", though its exact origin is debated.

pluck

Old English

From Old English "pluccian", meaning to pull or tear away; the noun sense of "courage" grew out of an older meaning of "heart and lungs" — the organs pulled from a butchered animal, with "heart" coming to stand for bravery.

plucky

Origin

Formed from "pluck" (courage, nerve) plus the adjective-forming suffix "-y".

plug

Dutch

Borrowed from Dutch "plug", meaning a peg or stopper.

plugboard

Origin

From plug + board.

plugin

English

From the phrasal verb plug in, on the image of plugging an extra part into a socket.

plum

Latin

From Old English "plūme", itself borrowed from Latin "prunum" (plum); it is a doublet of the word "prune", which comes from the same Latin root.

plumage

French

From French "plumage", built from "plume" (feather) plus the suffix "-age", denoting a collection.

plumb

Latin

From Old French, ultimately from Latin "plumbum" meaning lead — the metal traditionally used to weight the vertical measuring line.

plumbago

Origin

Borrowed from Latin plumbāgō (“type of lead ore”), from plumbum (“lead”).

plumber

Latin

From Old French "plummier", from Latin "plumbārius" (worker in lead) — plumbing pipes were traditionally made of lead.

plume

Latin

From Latin "plūma" meaning feather or down, arriving in English through French.

plummet

Old French

From Old French "plommet", a small ball of lead used on a measuring line; the verb sense of "falling swiftly" developed centuries later from the noun.

plumose

Origin

From Latin plūmōsus (“feathered”), from plūma (“feather”): compare French plumeux. By surface analysis, plume + -ose.

plump

Dutch

From Middle Dutch "plomp", meaning blunt or thick.

plumule

Origin

From Latin plūmula, diminutive of plūma (“feather”); compare French plumule. By surface analysis, plume + -ule.

plunder

German

Borrowed from German "plündern" (to loot), recorded in English use from the era of the Thirty Years' War and the English Civil War.

plunderer

Origin

From plunder + -er.

plunge

Latin

From Old French "plongier", ultimately from Latin "plumbum" (lead) — related to the idea of dropping a lead-weighted line.

plunger

Origin

Formed from "plunge" plus the agent suffix "-er".

plunk

Origin

Onomatopoeic; the noun is attested earlier than the verb. Noun etymology 1, noun sense 3 (“dollar; large sum of money”) may refer to the sound of a coin hitting a surface. Compare plonk, plink. As regards verb etymology 1, verb sense 1.4 (“(transitive) to drop, set, or throw (something, or oneself) abruptly and/or heavily”) and etymology 1, verb sense 2.4 (“(intransitive) to drop, land, or set abruptly and/or heavily”), compare French plonquer (Picardy), a variant of plonger (“to plunge”).

Plunkett

Origin

From a Norman habitational surname derived from the village of Pleugueneuc in Brittany.

plural

Latin

From Latin "plūrālis", from "plūs, plūris" (more).

plurality

Origin

From plural + -ity, from Middle English pluralite, from Old French pluralité (“multitude, state of being plural”), from Latin plūrālitās.

plurisecular

Origin

From pluri- (“multi-, many”) + secular (“of or related to centuries”), chiefly after French pluriséculaire.

plus

Latin

Borrowed directly from Latin "plūs", meaning "more".

plush

French

From French "peluche", meaning fluff or plush fabric.

Pluto

Latin · 2006

From Latin "Plūtō", from Greek "Ploútōn", god of the underworld; the informal verb sense arose after the dwarf planet Pluto was demoted from full planet status in 2006.

plutocracy

Origin

From Ancient Greek πλουτοκρατία (ploutokratía, “rule of the wealthy”), from πλουτοκρατέω (ploutokratéō, “I rule through wealth”), from πλοῦτος (ploûtos, “wealth”) + κρατέω (kratéō, “I rule”) (from κράτος (krátos, “power”, “might”)).

plutocrat

Origin

From pluto- + -crat, after plutocracy, from Ancient Greek πλοῦτος (ploûtos, “wealth, riches”) + κράτος (krátos, “power, might”).

plutonian

Origin

The adjective is derived from Latin Plūtōnius (“of or relating to Pluto, Greek and Roman god of the underworld”) + -an (suffix forming adjectives). Plūtōnius is from Ancient Greek Πλουτώνιος (Ploutṓnios, “of or relating to Pluto”), from Πλούτων (Ploútōn, “Pluto”) (from πλοῦτος (ploûtos, “riches, wealth”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *plew- (“to fly; to flow; to run”)) + -ων (-ōn)) + -ιος (-ios, suffix forming adjectives). The English word is cognate with Middle French plutonien (modern French plutonien). The noun is derived from the adjective.

plutonic

Origin

See Plutonic.

pluviophile

Latin and Greek

A modern compound of Latin pluvia, "rain", and the Greek-derived suffix -phile, "lover of".

ply

Latin

From Middle English "plien", ultimately from Latin "plicāre" (to fold) — the same root as "apply" and "reply".

plyboard

Origin

From ply + board.

Plymouth

Origin

Named for the mouth of the River Plym in Devon, England; the name was later carried to numerous towns in the United States and elsewhere by English settlers.

plywood

Origin

From ply (\"a layer\") + wood — literally wood built up in layers.

PMO

English

An initialism; each sense abbreviates a different phrase.

pneumatic

Greek

From Greek pneumatikos, "of wind or breath," from pneuma, "air, breath, spirit."

pneumonia

Greek

From Greek pneumon, "lung," combined with a suffix meaning "disease of."

pneumonic

Origin

From the post-Classical Latin pneumonicus and its etymon, the Ancient Greek πνευμονικός (pneumonikós).

pneumothorax

Origin

From pneumo- (\"air, lung\") + thorax (\"chest\").

PNG

English

An initialism of Portable Network Graphics.