英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

pleurisy (n.)[pleurisy 词源字典]: late 14c., from Old French pleurisie (13c., Modern French pleurésie) and directly from Late Latin pleurisis "pleurisy," alteration of Latin pleuritis "pain in the side," from Greek pleuritis, from pleura "side of the body, rib," of unknown origin. Spelling altered in Late Latin on model of Latin stem plur- "more" (as in Medieval Latin pluritas "multitude"), as if in reference to "excess of humors."[pleurisy etymology, pleurisy origin, 英语词源]
pleuro-: before vowels pleur-, word-forming element meaning "pertaining to the side; pertaining to the pleura," from comb. form of Greek pleura (see pleura).
plex: in various usages, from Latin plex-, past participle stem of plectere "to plait" (see complex (adj.)).
Plexiglas (n.): 1935, proprietary name (Röhm & Haas) for a substance also sold as Perspex and Lucite. Often written incorrectly as plexiglass.
plexus (n.): 1680s, Modern Latin, literally "braid, network," noun use of past participle of Latin plectere "to twine, braid, fold" (see complex (adj.)); used of a network, such as solar plexus "network of nerves in the abdomen" (see solar). Related: Plexal.
pliable (adj.): late 14c., from Old French ploiable "flexible, bendable," from plier "to bend" (see ply (n.)). Related: Pliably, pliability.
pliant (adj.): late 14c., from Old French ploiant "bending, supple; compliant, fickle," as a noun, "turncoat" (13c.), present participle of ploier "to bend" (see ply (n.)). Figurative sense of "easily influenced" is from c. 1400. Related: Pliancy.
plie (n.): in ballet, 1892, from French plié, from plier literally "to bend," from Old French ploier (see ply (n.)).
plier (n.): "one who folds," 1670s, agent noun from ply (v.).
pliers (n.): "pincers," 1560s, plural agent noun from ply (n.). French cognate plieur meant "folder."
plight (v.): "to pledge" (obsolete except in archaic plight one's troth), from Old English pligtan, plihtan "to endanger, imperil, compromise," verb form of pliht (n.) "danger, risk" (see plight (n.2)). Related: Plighted; plighting.
plight (n.1): "condition or state (usually bad)," late 12c., "danger, harm, strife," from Anglo-French plit, pleit, Old French pleit, ploit "condition" (13c.), originally "way of folding," from Vulgar Latin *plictum, from Latin plicitum, neuter past participle of Latin plicare "to fold, lay" (see ply (v.1)).

Originally in neutral sense (as in modern French en bon plit "in good condition"), sense of "harmful state" (and current spelling) probably is from convergence and confusion with plight (n.2) via notion of "entangling risk, pledge or promise with great risk to the pledger."
plight (n.2): "pledge," mid-13c., "pledge, promise," usually involving risk or loss in default, from Old English pliht "danger, risk, peril, damage," from Proto-Germanic *pleg- (cognates: Old Frisian plicht "danger, concern, care," Middle Dutch, Dutch plicht "obligation, duty," Old High German pfliht, German Pflicht "obligation, duty" (see plight (v.)). Compare Old English plihtere "look-out man at the prow of a ship," plihtlic "perilous, dangerous."
Plimsoll (n.): "mark on the hull of a British ship showing how deeply she may be loaded," 1881, from Samuel Plimsoll (1824-1898), M.P. for Derby and advocate of shipping reforms (which were embodied in the Merchant Shipping Act of 1876). Sense extended 1907 to "rubber-soled canvas shoe" (equivalent of American English sneakers) because the band around the shoes that holds the two parts together reminded people of a ship's Plimsoll line; sense perhaps reinforced by sound association with sole (which sometimes influenced the spelling to plimsole). The name is of Huguenot origin.
plink (v.): 1941, imitative. As a noun from 1954. Related: Plinked; plinking.
plinth (n.): 1610s, from French plinthe (16c.) and directly from Latin plinthus, from Greek plinthos "brick, squared stone," cognate with Old English flint (see flint).
plio-: word-forming element, Latinate form of pleio-.
Pliocene (adj.): 1833, from plio- "more" (Latinized form of pleio-) + -cene.
PLO: initialism (acronym) of Palestinian Liberation Organization, by 1965.
plod (v.): 1560s, of uncertain origin, perhaps imitative of the sound of walking heavily or slowly. Related: Plodded; plodding.