plaque

Meaning

Noun

• Any flat, thin piece of clay, ivory, metal, etc., used for ornament, or for painting pictures upon, as a dish, plate, slab, etc., hung upon a wall; also, a smaller decoration worn by a person, such as a brooch.
• A piece of flat metal with writing on it, attached to a building, monument, or other structure to remind people of a person or an event.
• A small card representing an amount of money, used for betting in casinos; a sort of gaming chip.
• A clearing in a bacterial lawn caused by a virus.
• In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system: any flat, thin musical instrument.
• A broad patch of abnormal tissue distinguishable from surrounding tissue, especially a broad papule on the skin.
• An abnormal accumulation of material in or on an organ of the body, often associated with disease.

Origin

• Borrowed from French plaque ("plate, sheet (of metal); slab (of marble); bacteria on teeth"), from French plaquer, Middle French plaquer ("to plate"), from Middle Dutch placken ("to patch, beat metal into a thin plate"), from placke, from Old Dutch *plagga ("patch"), from Proto-Germanic *plaggą ("patch").
• The word is cognate with Middle Low German placke, plagge, German Placken ("spot, patch"), Saterland Frisian plak, plakke, Swedish plagg ("clothing, garment"). Compare plack.