- Optics: Any crystalline material whose length is much less than its measured diameter.
→ half-wave plate.
- A flat piece of material on which a picture or text has been produced.
- Any of the large movable segments into which the Earth’s
lithosphere is divided. → plate tectonics.
Etymology (EN): M.E., from O.Fr. plate “thin piece of metal,” from M.L. plata
“plate, piece of metal,” perhaps via V.L. *plattus, from Gk. platys "
flat, broad."
Etymology (PE): 1) Tiqé, from
tiq “blade,” related to tiz “sharp,” variants
tig, tež, tej, tij;
Mid.Pers. tigr, têz, têž “sharp,” O.Pers. tigra- “pointed,”
tigra.xauda- “pointed helmet (epithet of Scythians),”
Av. tiγra- “pointed,”
tiγray- “arrow,” tiži.arštay- “with the pointed spear,”
cf. Skt. tikta- “sharp, pungent, bitter,” tejas- “sharpness, edge,
point or top of a flame;” PIE base *st(e)ig- “to stick; pointed.” Cognates in
other IE languages: Gk. stizein “to prick, puncture,” stigma
“mark made by a pointed instrument,” L. in-stigare “to goad,”
O.H.G. stehhan, Ger. stechen “to stab, prick,” Du. stecken,
O.E. sticca “rod, twig, spoon,” E. stick.
2); 3) loanword from Fr., as above.
