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"plate, dish" in seven languages

Meaningplate, dish

Spanish

plato

/ˈplato/

masc.inherited

It keeps pl- instead of ll-, which suggests a later entry or influence from Occitan/Catalan plat.

French

assiette

/asjɛt/

fem.other source · Old French asiete 'placing (at table)', from asseoir 'to seat' (Latin ASSIDĒRE)

Plat is a dish or a course.

Italian

piatto

/ˈpjatto/

masc.inherited

Portuguese

prato

/ˈpɾatu/

masc.inherited

Romanian

farfurie

/farfuˈrie/

fem.other source · Turkish farfuri 'porcelain' (from Persian)

Catalan

plat

/plat/

masc.inherited

English

plate

/pleɪt/

from Latin/French · Old French plate

English → Italianplate, dishpiattoCognateSame source — inherited, learned or borrowed. You can recognize it.What English and Italian share

The Latin ancestor

*PLATTUM‘flat (spoken Latin, from Greek platýs)’

All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.

The story

A plate is 'a flat thing' in Spanish and Italian (Italian pl → pi as usual). All three also use the word for a course: primer plato, premier plat, primo piatto.

English relatives: plate, platter, plateau

Sound laws at work

CL-, PL-, FL- at the start of a word

Learn it

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In a sentence

  • esPon los platos en la mesa.
  • frMets les assiettes sur la table.
  • itMetti i piatti in tavola.
  • ptPõe os pratos na mesa.
  • roPune farfuriile pe masă.
  • caPosa els plats a taula.
  • enPut the plates on the table.

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