A Plot Is a Piece of Ground and a Story's Shape
A plot is a patch of land, a secret scheme, or a story's structure. All three are one word.
A plot is a small piece of ground, a secret plan, or the structure of a story. The land sense is the original Old English one. The others grew through the idea of a plan drawn on the ground: a mapped-out patch became a mapped-out scheme, then the mapped-out shape of a narrative. The word was also influenced by French *complot*, a conspiracy. The verb keeps all of it — you plot a course, plot a graph, plot a murder and plot a novel with the same word.
- A piece of ground. *A vegetable plot.*
- A secret scheme. *A plot to seize power.*
- A story's structure. *The plot thickens.*
- To mark on a graph. *Plotting points.*
- Old English — *plot*. *The source.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | plot | A plot. |
| Verb | plot | Plotting. |
| Agent | plotter | A plotter. |
| French | complot | A conspiracy. |
| Old English | plot | A patch of ground. |
- He dug the vegetable plot.Land.
- They uncovered a plot.Scheme.
- The plot was hard to follow.Story.
Parts of a story's plot
- Exposition — the setting and situation
- Rising action — complications build
- Climax — the turning point
- Falling action — consequences unfold
- Resolution — the situation settles
Old English *plot*, a patch of ground, with the scheming sense influenced by Old French *complot*.
How did a patch of land come to mean a conspiracy?
Through the idea of a plan laid out on the ground, reinforced by French complot, meaning a conspiracy.
Is plotting a graph the same word?
Yes. It keeps the oldest sense of marking something out on a surface.