Plot (pronounced plot)
A secret plan or scheme to accomplish some purpose, describes
especially as such if for some hostile, unlawful, or evil purpose.
(2) In fiction, the plan, scheme, or main story of a
literary or dramatic work (play, novel short story etc) (also called storyline
or plotline and a plat may include a number of subplots).
(3) A small piece or area of ground (often with a
modifier: garden plot; burial plot et al); a measured piece or parcel of land.
(4) A plan, map, diagram or other graphic representation,
as of land, a building etc (in US use synonymous with a surveyor's map.
(5) A list, timetable, or scheme dealing with any of the
various arrangements for the production of a play, motion picture etc.
(6) A chart showing the course of a craft (ship or
airplane).
(7) In military use, a graphic representation of an
individual or tactical setting that pinpoints an artillery target (as a point
or points located on a map or chart (often as target plot)).
(8) To plan secretly, especially something hostile or
evil.
(9) To mark on a plan, map, or chart, as the course of a
ship or aircraft.
(10) To draw a plan or map of, as a tract of land or a
building.
(11) To divide land into plots.
(12) To determine and mark (points), as on plotting
paper, by means of measurements or coordinates; to describe curve by means of
points so marked; to represent by means of such a curve; to make a calculation
by means of a graph.
(13) To devise or construct the plot of a play, novel etc.
(14) To prepare a list, timetable, or scheme of production
arrangements for a play, motion picture etc.
Pre 1100: From the Middle English plot & plotte, (piece
of ground) in the sense of “small area, patch, stain, piece of ground” and was
often associated with actual legal title to the defined area. This was an inheritance from the Old English plot (piece of ground) which may (it’s
contested among etymologists) be from the Proto-Germanic plataz & platjaz (a
patch), the origin of which is unknown. It
was cognate with the Middle Low German plet
(patch, strip of cloth, rags), the German Bletz
(rags, bits, strip of land) and the Gothic plats
(a patch, rags).
In the 1550s it gained the sense of “ground plan,
outline, map, scheme”, a variant of the Middle English plat & platte (flat
part of a sword; flat piece of ground, plot of ground), itself partly a variant
of the Middle English & Old English plot. The sense of a “secret plan” emerged in the 1580s
by association with the Middle French complot
(crowd-, plot (ie a combined plan)) of an unknown origin but the Oxford
English Dictionary notes the speculation it may have been a back-formation from
compeloter (to roll into a ball) from pelote (ball). The verb was a derivative of the noun. Plot in the sense “a storyline or main story
of a fictional work” dates from the 1640s while the now familiar phrase “plot-line”
(main features of a story) seems not to have appeared in print prior to the
1940s although it may earlier have been in oral use as theatre slang in the
sense of “a sentence containing matter essential to the comprehension of the
play's story” since early in the century.
The noun marplot (one who by officious interference defeats a design)
was from 1708 and was the name of a character in Susanna Centlivre's (circa
1669-1723) comedy The busie body. The phrase sub-plot dates from 1812. The specific idea of a small piece of land in
a cemetery (described variously as “burial plot” or “funeral plot”) was an
invention of mid-nineteenth century US English.
In the context of (an often secret and for some unscrupulous
purpose) plan or scheme, plot can be synonymous with conspiracy but while a
plot can be devised by a single individual, a conspiracy by definition involves
at least two. To scheme is to plan (usually
with an implication of subtlety) often craftily and typically for one's own
advantage. Words related to plot in this
sense includes intrigue, cabal, conspiracy, brew, hatch, frame, design,
maneuver, scam & trick. In the sense
of land it can be section, division, parcel, piece etc. The meaning "to make a map or diagram of,
lay down on paper according to scale" was a borrowing from the nefarious
sense of scheming and dates from the 1580s while the intransitive sense of
"to form a plan or device" is from circa 1600. In the sense of the lines on a chart or map, there’s
no exact synonym (although various shapes (lines, curves, arcs etc) may be
describes as a part of a whole plot and the word was (as plotter) adopted as the
name of the device (a plotter was previously an individual employed manually to
draw) used to draw the lines and mark the points of plans, schematics,
blueprints etc. In idiomatic use, to “lose
the plot” is to become confused or disorientated or (more commonly) to lose
one's ability or judgment in a (usually stressful) situation. Plot is really unique to English and other
languages picked it up unaltered including French, Dutch, Albanian &
Spanish while Czech gained it from the Old Czech which (like Serbo-Croatian),
gained it from the Proto-Slavic plotъ; Indonesian picked it up from the Dutch. Plot is a noun & verb, plotted is a verb,
plotting is a noun & verb, plotful & plotless are adjectives and
plotter is a noun; the noun plural is plots (the form often also used as a
verb). The verb outplot (to surpass in
plotting or scheming) is rare, the derived forms being outplotted & outplotting.
A plot in progress: The Gunpowder Plotters (circa 1610), copperplate engraving conspiring by Crispijn van de Passe the Elder (circa 1564-1637)
Use of the word “plot” spiked suddenly once the “Gunpowder Plot” of 5 November 1605 became well-known. The Gunpowder Plot was a conspiracy among English Roman Catholics to blow up the houses of parliament, killing, inter alia, King James (James Charles Stuart, 1566–1625; King of Scotland as James VI from 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I after the union of the Scottish and English in 1603 until 1625), his queen and eldest son. Henry VIII’s (1491-1547; King of England 1509-1547) creation of the Church of England after breaking with Rome in 1534 meant the Roman Catholic Church vanished only in an institutional sense while many adherents to the denomination remained and in the years after Henry’s fiat, there had been many plots which aimed to restore Romish ways to the Isle. The gunpowder plot was probably the most dramatic (and certainly the most explosive) and was induced by the anger of some zealous Roman Catholics (the most remembered of whom was Guy Fawkes (1570-1606) at the king’s refusal to extend more rights to Catholics. Their probably not unreasonable assumption was that with the death of the senior royals and most of the members of the House of Commons and House of Lords, there would be such confusion the English Catholics would have their best chance to take back the government of the country and re-establish their Church.
The idea of killing the king was not new (England, like many of the nations of Europe enjoying something of a tradition of regicide) and prior to the Gunpowder Plot being put in train, there had been attempts to gain political and economic rights by negotiation but the authorities (thin-end-of-the-wedge theorists) remained intransigent and the Penal Laws (a body of laws with the practical effect of outlawing Roman Catholicism) remained in force. Accordingly, the plotters assembled some dozens of barrels of gunpowder (an even now impressive 1½ tons (1400 kg)) and secured a lease on a vault which sat directly beneath the House of Lords, hiding the explosives beneath piles of sacks, coal and firewood. The preparations in place, discussions were undertaken among the Catholic elite to allocate the positions in the government which would be formed once James’s daughter, the nine-year old Princess Elizabeth Stuart (1596–1662) was installed as queen. If that seems now a strange choice (and the plot included having her brought-up as a Roman Catholic and at some tender age married off to a suitably Romish groom) it doubtlessly reflected the view the (exclusively male) plotters held of women. Confident of their success, emissaries were dispatched to foreign courts likely to be sympathetic which included the Holy See in Rome.
Up to this point, the gunpowder plot flawlessly had evolved because the most vital part (secrecy between the conspirators) had been maintained. However, shortly before the fuse was to be lit, one of the plotters suffered pangs of conscience at the idea of mass murder (which would include not a few Roman Catholics) and sent an anonymous letter to one member of the Lords with whom he was acquainted:
My lord, out of the love I bear to some of your friends,
I have a care of your preservation, therefore I would advise you as you tender
your life to devise some excuse to shift your attendance at this parliament,
for God and man have concurred to punish the wickedness of this time, and think
not slightly of this advertisement, but retire yourself into your country,
where you may expect the event in safety, for though there be no appearance of
any stir, yet I say they shall receive a terrible blow this parliament and yet
they shall not see who hurts them, this counsel is not to be condemned because
it may do you good and can do you no harm, for the danger is past as soon as
you have burnt the letter and I hope God will give you the grace to make good
use of it, to whose holy protection I commend you.
Alarmed, his lordship alerted the authorities and the
decision was taken to search the premises but to wait until closer to the day
when the members were due to convene so the plotters might reveal
themselves. At this point the plot was
unraveling because the nature of the warning letter became known to the plotters
but, upon discovering their gunpowder undisturbed, they assumed it had been
dismissed as fake news and resolved to continue, placing a lookout to watch
over the vault. It was to no avail because
on 4 November, a search was undertaken and the stash uncovered. Guy Fawkes, linked to the lease taken on the
vault was arrested and, under the torture for which the Stuarts were justly
famous, named his fellow plotters and the extent of their participation. The planned insurrection quickly collapsed
and while a few of the plotters made good their escape to the continent, most
were either killed while fleeing or captured and executed.
Their planed act of terrorism caused such revulsion in
England that the cause of Catholic emancipation was set back centuries and laws
against them were strengthened and to add insult to injury, in January 1606 the
parliament established November 5 as a day of public thanksgiving. Known as Guy Fawkes Day, it was a popular
public festival celebrated throughout the land, the highlight of which was the
creation of huge bonfires upon which sat an effigy called "a guy" which had been paraded
through the streets. It's from this use that the word "guy" evolved into the present form, losing gradually the negative connotations (especially in the US) and late in the twentieth century also the exclusively male identity (the male proper name originally the French and related to the Italian Guido.). Guy Fawkes day is still
celebrated in England with bonfires and fireworks but in most of the Commonwealth,
where “cracker night” had also been a fond tradition, it has suffered the fate
of much in the nanny state, the humorous bureaucrats thinking fun must be had
without the annual toll of eyes and fingers for which Guy Fawkes nights had
become noted, the injuries increasing as fireworks became more powerful. Australians and others might be surprised if
wandering Amsterdam’s streets on new year’s eve, children happily launching
some quite impressive ordnance across the canals without apparent ill-effect.
Lindsay Lohan (with body double) on location in Westport, County Mayo, Ireland, for the shooting of Irish Wish. Lindsay Lohan has (an admittedly remote) connection with the Irish, the surname Lohan an anglicization of the Irish Ó Leocháin, from Middle Irish uí Leochain, from the Old Irish úa Lothcháin (the modern alternative forms being O'Lohan, Loughan, Loghan & Logan). Car is a Triumph TR4A (1965-1967). Netflix have released the plotline of the upcoming Irish Wish (release slated for 2024):
When the love of her life gets engaged to her best friend, Maddie puts her feelings aside to be a bridesmaid at their wedding in Ireland. Days before the pair are set to marry, Maddie makes a spontaneous wish for true love, only to wake up as the bride-to-be. With her dream seeming to come true, Maddie soon realizes that her real soulmate is someone else entirely.
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