river through central France, from Latin Liger, which is perhaps from a compound of PIE roots meaning "mud" and "water."

also *pletə-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to spread;" extension of root *pele- (2) "flat; to spread."

It forms all or part of: clan; flan; flat (adj.) "without curvature or projection;" flat (n.) "a story of a house;" flatter (v.); flounder (n.) "flatfish;" implant; piazza; place; plaice; plane; (n.4) type of tree; plant; plantain (n.2); plantar; plantation; plantigrade; plat; plate; plateau; platen; platform; platinum; platitude; Platonic; Plattdeutsch; platter; platypus; plaza; supplant; transplant.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit prathati "spreads out;" Hittite palhi "broad;" Greek platys "broad, flat;" Latin planta "sole of the foot;" Lithuanian platus "broad;" German Fladen "flat cake;" Old Norse flatr "flat;" Old English flet "floor, dwelling;" Old Irish lethan "broad."

1796, "elevated tract of relatively level land," from French plateau "table-land," from Old French platel (12c.) "flat piece of metal, wood, etc.," diminutive of plat "flat surface or thing," noun use of adjective plat "flat, stretched out" (12c.), perhaps from Vulgar Latin *plattus, from or modeled on Greek platys "flat, wide, broad" (from PIE root *plat- "to spread"). Meaning "stage at which no progress is apparent" is attested from 1897, originally in psychology of learning. In reference to sexual stimulation from 1960.

mid-14c., "slime, greasy filth," from Old French glete "clay, loam; slime, mud, filth" (12c., Modern French glette), from Latin glitem (nominative glis) "sticky, glutinous ground," back-formation from glittus "sticky."

before vowels plagi-, word-forming element meaning "slanting, oblique," from Greek plagios "oblique, slanting," from plagos "side," from PIE *plag- "flat, spread," variant form of root *plak- (1) "to be flat."

kind of flat fish, late 15c., a name of unknown origin.

1540s, "flat plate of metal," from French plateine, from Old French platine "flat piece, metal plate" (13c.), perhaps altered (by influence of plat "flat") from patene, from Latin patina "pan; broad, shallow dish," from Greek patane "plate, dish" (from PIE root *pete- "to spread"). From 1590s as "the flat part of a press which comes down upon the form and by which the impression is made." Hence, on a typewriter, "cylindrical roller or other surface against which the paper is held" (1890).

1780, "mud, muddy land," from Irish slab "mud, mire dirt," itself probably borrowed from English slab "muddy place" (c. 1600), from a Scandinavian source (compare Icelandic slabb "sludge"). The meaning "untidy person," often with implications of "dull, slow, loutish, easily imposed upon," emerged by 1887, probably shortened from earlier expressions such as slob of a man (1861).

"Low German dialect of northern Germany," 1814, from German, from Dutch platduits, literally "flat (or low) German," from plat "flat, plain, clear" + duits "German" (see Dutch). In contrast to the speech of the upland parts of Germany (High German).