plight

Meanings

Noun

• A dire or unfortunate situation.
• A (neutral) condition or state.
• Good health.
• Responsibility for ensuing consequences; risk; danger; peril.
• An instance of danger or peril; a dangerous moment or situation.
• Blame; culpability; fault; wrong-doing; sin; crime.
• One's office; duty; charge.
• That which is exposed to risk; that which is plighted or pledged; security; a gage; a pledge.
• A network; a plait; a fold; rarely a garment.

Verb

• To expose to risk; to pledge.
• Specifically, to pledge (one's troth etc.) as part of a marriage ceremony.
• To promise (oneself) to someone, or to do something.
• To weave; to braid; to fold; to plait.

Origin

• From Middle English plit ("fold, wrinkle, bad situation"), conflation of Middle English plight ("risky promise, peril") (from Old English pliht "danger, risk") and Anglo-Norman plit ("fold, condition"), from Old French pleit ("condition, manner of folding") (from Vulgar Latin *plictum, from Latin plicitum ("fold")).
• From Middle English plight ("risk, danger"), from Old English pliht ("peril, risk, danger, damage, plight"), from Proto-West Germanic *plihti ("care, responsibility, duty"). A suffixed form of the root represented by Old English pleoh and plēon. Akin to Old English plihtan. Cognate with Scots plicht ("responsibility, plight"), Dutch plicht, Low German plicht ("duty"), German Pflicht ("duty"), Danish pligt ("duty"), Yiddish פֿליכט. More at pledge.
• From Middle English plyghten, plyȝten, pleyȝten, pleiten, pliten, from the noun (see below).
• From Middle English pliȝt, plight, plyt, pleit, from Anglo-Norman pleit. More at plait.