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PLIGHT

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 841 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PLIGHT , an homonymous word now used chiefly with two meanings, (I) See also:

pledge, and (2) See also:condition or See also:state. The first appears more generally in the verbal See also:form, " to plight one's troth," &c., and the second with a See also:direct or implied sense of misfortune. The derivations of the two words show they are quite distinct in origin. The O. Eng. pliht meant danger or See also:risk, hence risk of See also:obligation (cf. Ger. Pflicht, Du. plicht, care, See also:duty). The See also:root pleh- or pleg- is probably also to be seen in the much disputed word " pledge." The M. Eng. plit or plyt, on the other See also:hand, is an See also:adaptation of O. Fr. ploit, See also:fold, and therefore a doublet of " See also:plait," but appears in the 14th See also:century with the neutral sense of condition or state in See also:general.

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