placard
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈplæk.ɑːd/
ipa: /ˈplæk.ɑɹd/
other: /ˈplæk.ɚd/
Forms: form: placards
form: plackart
form: plaquet
Etymology: From Middle English placard (“official document”), from Middle French placard, placart, plaquart (“a placard, a writing pasted on a wall”), from the Old French verb plaquer, plaquier (“to stick or paste, roughcast”), from Middle Dutch placken, plecken (“to glue or fasten, plaster, patch”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *plaggą (“a piece of cloth, patch”), equivalent to plaque + -ard.
Related to Middle Low German placken (“to smear with lime or clay, plaster”), Saterland Frisian Plak, Plakke (“a hit, smack, slap”), German Placken (“a spot, patch”), Icelandic plagg (“a document”), Hebrew פלקט (plakat, “a large sheet of paper, typically with a photo or writing, posted on the wall”), English play. Compare also Modern Dutch plakkaat (“placard”), Saterland Frisian Plakoat (“a placard, poster”). More at play.
Senses: examples: text: Especially from Mr. Borthrop Trumbull, a distinguished bachelor and auctioneer of those parts, much concerned in the sale of land and cattle: a public character, indeed, whose name was seen on widely distributed placards, and who might reasonably be sorry for those who did not know of him.
ref: 1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], Middlemarch […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book (please specify |book=I to VIII):
text: He brought out the placard, which was quite a work of art. It was nearly two feet long, printed on calendered paper, with a selection of colors so bright that they shone even in the moonlight.
ref: 1905 April–October, Upton Sinclair, chapter IV, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 26 February 1906, →OCLC:
text: While her husband read the placards pasted on the brick announcing the hours at which certain ships would sail for Scotland, Mrs. Ambrose did her best to find information.
ref: 1915, Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out, London: Duckworth & Co., […], →OCLC:
text: Towards the end of August, the Southern Railway decided to adopt a novel form of publicity to popularise the services. Sandwich board men were employed at Charing Cross and Cannon Street to display placards, and distribute leaflet timetables, calling attention to the vacant seats on the services via Nunhead.
ref: 1946 November and December, “Additional London-Dartford Services”, in Railway Magazine, page 386:
glosses: A sheet of paper or cardboard with a written or printed announcement on one side for display in a public place.
examples: text: All placards or edicts are published in his name.
ref: 1655, James Howell, “A Survey of the Seventeen Provinces”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume (please specify the page), London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […], →OCLC:
glosses: A public proclamation; a manifesto or edict issued by authority.
examples: text: to give a placard to do something
glosses: Permission given by authority; a license.
glosses: An extra plate on the lower part of the breastplate or backplate of armour.
glosses: A kind of stomacher, often adorned with jewels, worn in the fifteenth century and later.
glosses: The woodwork and frame of the door of a closet etc.
Derived terms: placarder