plash means A small pool of standing water; a marshy pond; also, a puddle; (uncountable) marshy land; mire. It carries an Arena rating of 1734, earned across 40 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, plash ranks #62 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #369 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #500 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #2,459 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
plash is pronounced /plæʃ/.
Why “plash” is a great word
PLASH — [Noun, Verb, Interjection] A precise term for a small, marshy pool or the light, liquid sound associated with it; as a verb, to make such a sound; as an interjection, to express it. From Middle English plasch, plasche, from Late Old English plæsċ, plesċ ("pool, puddle"), probably from Proto-West Germanic *plask ("pool"), likely of onomatopoeic origin, imitating the sound of splashing. Unlike "puddle," a temporary, shallow accumulation, or "splash," a vigorous and public report, *plash* evokes a gentler, more poetic quietude. It is the muted percussion of a single raindrop hitting a still forest pool, the shallow, reed-fringed depression where a heron stands, and the quiet disturbance of a fish turning in a shadowed backwater—a word that is itself a tiny linguistic wetland, holding the memory of both sound and solitude.
Etymology
From Middle English plasch, plasche, plash, plashe (“pool of standing water, marshy place; torrent of water (?)”), from Late Old English plæsċ, plesċ (“pool; puddle”), probably from Proto-West Germanic *plask (“pool”); further etymology unknown, probably ultimately onomatopoeic, referring to the sound of splashing. cognates * German platschen (“to splash”) * Middle Dutch plasch, plas (“pool”) (modern Dutch plas (“pool, watering hole”), plassen (“to splash, splatter”); Middle French plache (“pool”), plascq (“damp meadow”); Anglo-Norman plasseis (“marshes”, plural)) * West Frisian plaskje (“to splash, splatter”)
noun
- A small pool of standing water; a marshy pond; also, a puddle; (uncountable) marshy land; mire.
- A sound made by something hitting the surface of water or some other liquid, or by water or some other liquid hitting something; also, an act causing this sound; a splash.
- A heavy fall of rain; a downpour.e.g.“Penthouses five stories high, not so much for the protection of the people in the street as to keep the plash of heavy rain from the house windows, so that these might be the more safely open.” — 1887, John Ruskin, “The Simplon”, in Præterita. Outlines of Scenes and Thoughts Perhaps Worthy of Memory in My Past Life, volume II, Orpington, Kent: George Allen, →OCLC, page 162:
- A splash of light on a surface.e.g.“The waterfall, scattering its vanishing gems; the tall grove of hemlocks, with moss on their stems, like plashes of sunlight; […]” — 1848 October 21, [James Russell Lowell], “A Preliminary Note to the Second Edition”, in […] A Fable for Critics; or, […] A Glance at a Few of our Literary Progenies […], 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: G
- A plant stem which has been partly cut, bent down, and intertwined with other stems to make or repair a hedge; also, a bush, hedge, etc., which has been pleached in this manner; a pleach.
intj
- Used to represent the sound made by something hitting the surface of water or some other liquid, or by water or some other liquid hitting something.e.g.“In the ooze generally the water comes half-way up the shoe, and we go plash, plash, plash, in the lawn-like glade.” — 1867 January 9 (date written), David Livingstone, chapter VII, in The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death. […], volume I, London: John Murray, […], published
verb
- To hit (someone or something) with water or some other liquid, causing a splashing sound; to splash.e.g.“When the halcyon is sporting far out on the seas, / In the beach's bright ripple thou plashest thy wings, / And tossest the spray from the shore-eddied rings.” — 1850 April, W. F. Jones, Jr., “The Sea-gull”, in B[enjamin] F[ranklin] Tefft, editor, The Ladies’ Repository: A Monthly Periodical Devoted to Literature and Religion, volume X, Cincinnati, Oh.: L. Swo
- To hit (someone or something) with water or some other liquid, causing a splashing sound; to splash.; To splash or sprinkle (a surface, such as a wall) with a liquid colouring matter.e.g.“to plash a wall in imitation of granite”
- To agitate or plunge into (water or some other liquid), causing it to splash.
- To hit the surface of water or some other liquid, causing a splashing sound; also, to move in water with a splashing sound; to splash.
- Of water or some other liquid: to hit something, or to move about, with a splashing sound; to splash.
- To hit someone or something with water or some other liquid, causing a splashing sound.e.g.“In clammie waies he treaddeth by and by, / And plasheth and sprayeth all that be him nye.” — c. 1592–1593 (date written), Thomas Nash[e], “The Choosing of Valentines”, in John S[tephen] Farmer, editor, The Choise of Valentines: Or The Merie Ballad of Nash His Dildo […], London: Privately prin
- Synonym of pleach (“to make or repair (a hedge) by partly cutting plant stems, bending them down, and intertwining them with other stems”).
- To bend down and intertwine (branches or stems of plants, etc.) to make or repair a hedge.
- To bend down and intertwine (branches or stems of plants, etc.) to make or repair a hedge.; To bend down (a bush, tree, or other plant).
- To intertwine (branches or stems of plants) on a trellis; to trellis; also, to train (a tree or other plant) to grow against a wall; to espalier.
- To intertwine (branches or stems of plants) on a trellis; to trellis; also, to train (a tree or other plant) to grow against a wall; to espalier.; To intertwine (branches, flowers, etc.) together; to interweave.
- To intertwine branches or stems of plants of (a wood) to block a passage for defensive purposes.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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