1640s, from Latin herbaceus "grassy," from herba "grass, herbage" (see herb).

Old English plante "young tree or shrub, herb newly planted, a shoot or strip recently sprouted from seed," from Latin planta "sprout, shoot, cutting" (source of Spanish planta, French plante), which is perhaps from an unattested verb *plantare "to drive in with the feet, push into the ground with the feet," or perhaps "to level the earth," from planta "sole of the foot," from nasalized form of PIE root *plat- "to spread."  German Pflanz, Irish cland, Welsh plant also are from Latin.

Broader sense of "any small vegetable life, vegetation generally" (sometimes popularly excluding trees), "an individual living being with material organization but not animal in nature" is recorded by 1550s.

Most extended usages are from the verb, on the notion of "something planted;" such as "construction for an industrial process," 1789, at first with reference to the machinery, tools, apparatus, etc., later also the building; also slang meaning "a spy" (1812). Many of these follow similar developments in the French form of the word.

Old English plantian "put or set in the ground to grow" (transitive and intransitive), also "introduce and establish, set up for the first time," from Latin *plantare "to plant, drive in with the feet" (see plant (n.)). Reinforced by cognate Old French planter.

Without reference to growing, "to insert firmly," late 14c. Of colonies, "introduce and establish new settlers in," from c. 1300. Figuratively, of ideas, etc., from early 15c. Meaning "to station (someone) for a surreptitious or secret purpose" is by 1690s; sense of "place (something) in a concealed place to mislead a later discoverer" is by 1865. In pugilistic slang, "to land, deliver" (a blow, etc.) by 1808. Meaning "to bury" is U.S. slang from U.S., 1855. Related: Planted; planting.

1823, said to have been discovered on the coast of the Pacific northwest of North America during Cook's third expedition and so-named by the sailors, "from its striking resemblance to a large spider when it first appears above the surface, before the stem begins to rise from the spherical arrangement of the leaves, or the flagellae begin to creep to any distance from among them to the soil around" [Peter Sutherland, "Journal of a Voyage in Baffin's Bay," 1852]; from spider + plant (n.).

"broad-leaved herbaceous plant," 1924, from Greek phorbe "fodder, forage."

herbaceous plant much valued medicinally in Middle Ages, late 14c., from Old French verveine (13c.), from Latin verbena (see verbena).

plant genus, mostly herbaceous climbers, 1550s, "periwinkle," from Latin clematis, from Greek klematis, in Dioscorides as the name of a climbing or trailing plant (OED says probably the periwinkle) with long and lithe branches, diminutive of klema "vine-branch, shoot or twig broken off" (for grafting), from klan "to break" (see clastic).

herbaceous plant, used in salads and medicinally, late 14c., purcelane, via Anglo-French from Old French porcelaine, pourcelaine, from Latin porcilaca, a variant of portulaca. Apparently altered in French and Italian (porcellana) by influence of their equivalent of porcelain.

prickly herbaceous plant, Old English þistel, from Proto-Germanic *thistilaz (source also of Old Saxon thistil, Old High German distil, German Distel, Old Norse þistell, Danish tidsel), of uncertain origin; perhaps from an extended form of PIE root *steig- "to prick, stick, pierce." Emblematic of Scotland since 15c.

"herbaceous plant of the genus Urtica, armed with stinging hairs" (also used of other plants of the genus and of nettle-like plants, generally with a qualifying word), Middle English netle, from Old English netele, from Proto-Germanic *natilon (source also of Old Saxon netila, Middle Dutch netele, Dutch netel, German Nessel, Danish nædlæ "nettle"), diminutive of *nato-, of unknown origin, perhaps from PIE root *ned- "to bind, tie." "[N]ettles or plants of closely related genera such as hemp were used as a source of fiber" [Watkins].