Plate, Platinum and Plaza Share One Idea: Flat
A plate is a flat dish for food. The word spread to armour, printing, geology and even a precious metal.
A plate is a flat dish, and by extension any flat sheet of rigid material. Greek *platys*, broad or flat, sits behind an unlikely family: the dinner plate, the armour plate, the printing plate, the tectonic plate, the licence plate — and *platinum*, which Spanish miners named *platina*, little silver, from *plata*, silver, itself named for flat sheet metal. Continental drift is called *plate tectonics* because the earth's crust is broken into flat slabs.
- A flat dish. *A dinner plate.*
- A sheet of metal. *Steel plate.*
- A printing surface. *A copper plate.*
- A tectonic slab. *The Pacific plate.*
- Greek — *platys*, broad. *The source.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | plate | A plate. |
| Plural | plates | Plates. |
| Verb | plate | Gold-plated. |
| Noun | plating | Chrome plating. |
| Greek | platys | Broad. |
- Set the plates on the table.Dish.
- The hull is armoured with steel plate.Metal.
- Two plates meet along the fault.Geology.
The broad and flat family
- Plate — a flat dish or sheet
- Platinum — from Spanish *platina*, little silver
- Plaza / piazza / place — a broad open space
- Platypus — flat-footed, from *platys* plus *pous*
- Plateau — a flat elevated area
Old French *plate*, a thin flat piece, from Latin *plattus*, from Greek *platys*, broad or flat.
Is platinum related to plate?
Distantly. Spanish miners called it platina, little silver, and silver was plata, from the same idea of flat sheet metal.
Why plate tectonics?
Because the earth's crust is divided into large flat slabs that move against each other.