Follow “plantation” through time. Which part surprised you? #words #vocabulary
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A WORD THROUGH TIME: Where did “plantation” come from?. English plantation came from Latin plantatio, an act of planting, through a form recorded in Middle English. It first named the planting of vegetation, then extended the same image to establishing people in a place: a settlement or colony.
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THE CONNECTION: Follow the connection. In English colonial use, plantation could mean a newly established settlement. In Virginia, the word shifted toward the large agricultural estate that grew cash crops. That system increasingly depended on the coerced labor of enslaved Africans and their descendants, which is why the word carries far more than its botanical root today.
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THE MEANING TODAY: “plantation”. Say it: /plænˈteɪʃən/ Meaning: An estate where cash crops are grown on a large scale (especially in tropical areas).
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YOUR TURN: “plantation”. Which part of this word’s history surprised you?
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PLAY LEXIFOUR: Try five more words. Play the free daily vocabulary game at lexifour.com. Follow for more word stories.