noun
plantation
an estate where cash crops are grown on a large scale (especially in tropical areas)
Where it comes 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.
How the meaning developed
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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Sources
- Plantation: Etymology, Origin & Meaning
- Plantation Definition & Meaning
- Rise of the Colonial Plantation System
Definitions adapted from Open English WordNet where applicable. License and attribution. Word-history text comes from Lexifour’s sourced social research; pages are assembled automatically, not individually fact-checked on every update.
Updated 2026-09-25. Report a correction.