Plant Comes From the Sole of the Foot
A plant is a living organism that grows in soil. The word traces back to the Latin for the sole of the foot, because seedlings were pressed in by heel.
A plant is a living organism that grows in the ground, and also a factory or an item placed somewhere to deceive. Latin *planta* meant the sole of the foot, and the verb *plantare* meant to press a seedling into the earth with the heel. Every later sense grew from that single physical action: to plant an idea, to plant evidence, to plant a factory in a town. The industrial sense arrived in the 1700s, from the idea of equipment set down in a fixed place.
- A growing organism. *A garden plant.*
- A factory. *A car plant.*
- Something placed to deceive. *A plant in the audience.*
- To put in the ground. *Plant the seeds.*
- Latin — *planta*, the sole of the foot. *The source.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | plant | A plant. |
| Plural | plants | Plants. |
| Verb | plant | Plant it. |
| Noun | plantation | A plantation. |
| Latin | planta | The sole. |
- Water the plants each morning.Botany.
- The plant employs three hundred people.Factory.
- The evidence was planted.Deception.
The planta family
- Plant — pressed into the ground by foot
- Plantation — a place where things are planted
- Plantar — of the sole of the foot, as in plantar fasciitis
- Transplant — to move a plant, or an organ, to a new place
- Implant — to plant firmly inside something
Latin *planta*, a sprout or the sole of the foot, and *plantare*, to drive in with the heel.
Why does plant relate to feet?
Latin planta means the sole of the foot, and planting once meant pressing a seedling into the earth with your heel.
Why is a factory called a plant?
From the sense of machinery set down and fixed in one place, recorded from the 1700s.