Plight Definition
(now chiefly dialectal) Responsibility for ensuing consequences; risk; danger; peril.
(now chiefly dialectal) Blame; culpability; fault; wrong-doing; sin; crime.
(reflexive) To promise (oneself) to someone, or to do something.
- To become engaged to marry.
- To give one's solemn oath.
- to pledge one's truth, or one's word
- to make a promise of marriage
Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Plight
- plight (one's) troth
- plight one's troth
Origin of Plight
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From Middle English plight (“risk, danger"), from Old English pliht (“peril, risk, danger, damage, plight"), from Proto-Germanic *plihtiz (“care, responsibility, duty"). A suffixed form of the root represented by Old English pleoh (“risk, danger, hurt, peril"; also "responsibility") and plÄ“on (“to endanger, risk"). Akin to Old English plihtan (“to endanger, compromise"). Cognate with Scots plicht (“responsibility, plight"), Dutch plicht, Low German plicht (“duty"), German Pflicht (“duty"). More at pledge.
From Wiktionary
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Middle English plit (“fold, wrinkle, bad situation"), conflation of Middle English pliht, plight (“risky promise, peril") (from Old English pliht "danger, risk") and Anglo-Norman plit, plyte (“fold, condition"), from Old French pleit (“condition, manner of folding") (from Vulgar Latin *plictum, from Latin plicitum (“fold")).
From Wiktionary
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Middle English alteration (influenced by plight risky promise or pledge) of plit fold, wrinkle, situation from Anglo-Norman from Latin plicitum neuter past participle of plicāre to fold plek- in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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Middle English plighten from Old English plihtan to endanger, put at risk from pliht danger, risk dlegh- in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
Through Old French, from Latin plectare. German flechten (“to plait") and Danish flette are probably unrelated.
From Wiktionary
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