noun · countable · rare

plash

plash · plashes

A small pool of standing waterA small pool of standing water; a marshy pond; also, a puddle; (uncountable) marshy land; mire.

/plæʃ/

Meaning

5 senses

(Midlands, North, Northern England, countable)A small pool of standing water; a marshy pond; also, a puddle; (uncountable) marshy land; mire.
A sound made by something hitting the surface of water or some other liquid, or by water or some other liquid hitting something; also, an act causing this sound; a splash.
the sound like water splashing
(UK, dialectal)A heavy fall of rain; a downpour.
(figuratively, obsolete, rare)A splash of light on a surface.
(UK, archaic, dialectal, transitive)A plant stem which has been partly cut, bent down, and intertwined with other stems to make or repair a hedge; also, a bush, hedge, etc., which has been pleached in this manner; a pleach.

Origin

From Middle English plasch, plasche, plash, plashe (“pool of standing water, marshy place;

From Middle English plasch, plasche, plash, plashe (“pool of standing water, marshy place; torrent of water (?)”), from Late Old English plæsċ, plesċ (“pool; puddle”), probably from Proto-West Germanic *plask (“pool”); further etymology unknown, probably ultimately onomatopoeic, referring to the sound of splashing.

Probably onomatopoeic, referring to the sound of splashing. The noun is attested earlier than the verb. It is not clear whether this word is related to plash (“small pool of standing water”) (see etymology 1). The interjection is derived from the noun.

The verb is derived from Late Middle English *plashen (attested by the present participle form plashynge), from Anglo-Norman plaissier, plaisser, Old French plaissier, plaisser, and Old French plaissier (“to bend; to interlace”) (modern French plaisser (regional)), from Late Latin *plaxus, a variant of Latin plexus, the perfect passive participle of plectō (“to braid, plait, weave; to bend; to turn; to twist”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- (“to fold; to plait, weave”). Doublet of pleach.

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