plantation

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French plantation, from Latin plantātiō (planting, transplanting), from plantātus (planted), the perfect passive participle of plantāre, + action noun suffix -tiō.

Pronunciation

  • (US) IPA(key): /plænˈteɪʃən/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

plantation (countable and uncountable, plural plantations)

  1. A large farm; estate or area of land designated for agricultural growth. Often includes housing for the owner and workers.
    • 2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29:
      Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles.
  2. An area where trees are planted, either for commercial purposes, or to adorn an estate.
    • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A First Disappointment”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. [], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, [], →OCLC, page 268:
      She used to bound through the plantations, her eye first caught by one object, then another, gazing round for something to admire and to love. Now she walked slowly, her eyes fixed on the ground, as if, in all the wide fair world, there was nothing to attract nor to interest.
  3. (historical) The importation of large numbers of workers and soldiers to displace the local population, such as in medieval Ireland and in the Americas; colonization.
  4. (historical) A colony established thus.
    Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (former official name of Rhode Island, United States)
    • 1625, Samuel Purchas, “The Jesuites gleanings in Africa to Christian Religion, gathered out of their owne writings”, in Pvrchas His Pilgrimes, volume IX, London, →OCLC, page 263:
      The King of Beni, the Lord of seven Kingdomes hath written to mee for Baptisme : but I cannot forsake these two Kings till I have other helpe. This Countrey is as healthfull as any I ever came in, and Sierra Leona would be a fit place for a plantation of the Society : for which King Philip wrote to the Catholike King, offering a place to erect a Fort, and commending the largenesse, wholsomnesse, and fertilitie of his Countrey.
    • 1629, John Parkinson, “The Garden of pleaſant Flowers”, in Paradisi in sole Paradisus Terrestris, London: Hvmfrey Lownes and Robert Yovng, →OCLC, page 357:
      All theſe Bell-flowers do grow in our Gardens, where they are cheriſhed for the beautie of their flowers. The Couentry Bels doe not grow wilde in any of the parts about Couentry, as I am credibly informed by a faithfull Apothecary dwelling there, called Maſter Brian Ball, but are nouriſhed in Gardens with them, as they are in other places. The laſt groweth neere the riuer of Canada, where the French plantation in America is ſeated.
    • 1887 [1871 June 14], Charles Wesley Tuttle, “Memoir of Capt. John Mason”, in Capt. John Mason, the Founder of New Hampshire, Boston: Prince Society, →OCLC, page 6:
      Capt. John Maſon, a young and enterpriſing man, had been in Newfoundland as governor of the plantation made there in 1611, and was now returned into England. He immediately joined Gorges in ſettling New England, and their joint enterpriſe ſucceeded.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:plantation.

Derived terms

  • plant
  • (importation of people to displace local persons): planter

Translations

References

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin plantātiōnem.

Pronunciation

  • (file)

Noun

plantation f (plural plantations)

  1. planting
  2. plantation

Descendants

  • Turkish: plantasyon

Further reading

Interlingua

Etymology

From the Interlingua-English Dictionary.

From English plantation, from Middle French plantation, from Latin plantātiō (planting, transplanting), from plantātus (planted), the perfect passive participle of plantāre, + action noun suffix -tiō.

Noun

plantation (plural plantationes)

  1. Large farm; estate or area of land designated for agricultural growth. Often includes housing for the owner and workers.
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