plat
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /plæt/
rhymes: -æt
homophone: plait
homophone: Platte
Forms: form: plats
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English plat, platte (“flat part of a sword; flat piece of ground, plot of ground”), probably a variant of Middle English plot, (modern English plot) and influenced by Middle English plat, plate (modern English plate) and Anglo-Norman, Middle French and Old French plat. See platy-, plaice, flat.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: Such pleaſure took the Serpent to behold
 This Flourie Plat, the ſweet receſs of Eve
 Thus earlie, thus alone; [...]
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Blackbird”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza I, page 208:
text: [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.
ref: 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:
glosses: A plot of land; a lot.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
glosses: A map showing the boundaries of real properties (delineating one or more plots of land), especially one that forms part of a legal document.
examples: text: 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; [...]
ref: 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:
text: [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, [...]
ref: 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:
glosses: A plot, a scheme.
Derived terms: grassplat
platband