plant: [OE] Etymologically, a plant is probably something you press into the ground with the ‘sole’ of your foot. The word was borrowed from Latin planta ‘shoot, sprout, cutting’, a derivative of the verb plantāre ‘plant, transplant’, and it has been speculated that this was based on Latin planta ‘sole of the foot’ (source of English plantain and plantigrade ‘walking on the soles of the feet’ [19]). => plan, plantain
plant (n.)
Old English plante "young tree or shrub, herb newly planted," from Latin planta "sprout, shoot, cutting" (source of Spanish planta, French plante), perhaps from *plantare "to drive in with the feet, push into the ground with the feet," from planta "sole of the foot," from nasalized form of PIE *plat- "to spread, flat" (see place (n.)).
Broader sense of "any vegetable life, vegetation generally" is first recorded 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 set-up of machinery, later also the building; also slang meaning "a spy" (1812). Many of these follow similar developments in the French form of the word. German Pflanz, Irish cland, Welsh plant are from Latin.
plant (v.)
"put in the ground to grow," Old English plantian, from Latin plantare (see plant (n.)). Reinforced by cognate Old French planter. Without reference to growing, "to insert firmly," late 14c. Of colonies from c. 1300. Figuratively, of ideas, etc., from early 15c. Meaning "to bury" is U.S. slang from U.S., 1855. Related: Planted; planting.
例文
1. It will produce electricity more cheaply than a nuclear plant .
原発よりも発電コストが低い。
2.The plant acts as a sedative in treating neuralgia.
この植物は、神経痛を治療する際の鎮静薬として使用されている。
3.Her husband laboured at the plant for 17 years.
彼女の夫は工場で17年間苦労して働いた。
4.Stand the plant in the open in a sunny,sheltered place.
この植物を日当たりがよく、上に覆いがある広い場所に置く。
5.The plant has an unpleasant odour and an acrid taste.