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placard

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English placard (“official document”), from Middle French placard, placart, plaquart (“a placard, a writing pasted on a wall”), from the Old French verb plaquer, plaquier (“to stick or paste, roughcast”), from Middle Dutch placken, plecken (“to glue or fasten, plaster, patch”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *plaggą (“a piece of cloth, patch”), equivalent to plaque +‎ -ard.

Related to Middle Low German placken (“to smear with lime or clay, plaster”), Saterland Frisian Plak, Plakke (“a hit, smack, slap”), German Placken (“a spot, patch”), Icelandic plagg (“a document”), Hebrew פלקט (“'plakat' a large sheet of paper, typically with a photo or writing, posted on the wall”), English play. Compare also Modern Dutch plakkaat (“placard”), Saterland Frisian Plakoat (“a placard, poster”). More at play.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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placard (plural placards)

  1. A sheet of paper or cardboard with a written or printed announcement on one side for display in a public place.
    • 1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], Middlemarch […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book (please specify |book=I to VIII):
      Especially from Mr. Borthrop Trumbull, a distinguished bachelor and auctioneer of those parts, much concerned in the sale of land and cattle: a public character, indeed, whose name was seen on widely distributed placards, and who might reasonably be sorry for those who did not know of him.
    • 1905 April–October, Upton Sinclair, chapter IV, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1906 February 26, →OCLC:
      He brought out the placard, which was quite a work of art. It was nearly two feet long, printed on calendered paper, with a selection of colors so bright that they shone even in the moonlight.
    • 1915, Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out, London: Duckworth & Co., […], →OCLC:
      While her husband read the placards pasted on the brick announcing the hours at which certain ships would sail for Scotland, Mrs. Ambrose did her best to find information.
    • 1946 November and December, “Additional London-Dartford Services”, in Railway Magazine, page 386:
      Towards the end of August, the Southern Railway decided to adopt a novel form of publicity to popularise the services. Sandwich board men were employed at Charing Cross and Cannon Street to display placards, and distribute leaflet timetables, calling attention to the vacant seats on the services via Nunhead.
  2. (obsolete) A public proclamation; a manifesto or edict issued by authority.
  3. (obsolete) Permission given by authority; a license.
    to give a placard to do something
  4. (historical) An extra plate on the lower part of the breastplate or backplate of armour.
  5. (historical) A kind of stomacher, often adorned with jewels, worn in the fifteenth century and later.
  6. The woodwork and frame of the door of a closet etc.

Translations

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Verb

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placard (third-person singular simple present placards, present participle placarding, simple past and past participle placarded)

  1. To affix a placard to.
    • 1880, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], A Tramp Abroad; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
      The inner walls of the church were placarded with large mural tablets of copper, bearing engraved inscriptions celebrating the merits of old Heilbronn worthies of two or three centuries ago, […]
    • 1890, John Ashton, The Dawn of the XIXth Century in England‎[1]:
      The mail coaches were placarded PEACE WITH FRANCE in large capitals, and the drivers all wore a sprig of laurel, as an emblem of peace, in their hats.
    • 1894 December – 1895 November, Thomas Hardy, chapter VIII, in Jude the Obscure, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1896, →OCLC:
      In the afternoon Sue and the other people bustling about Kennetbridge fair could hear singing inside the placarded hoarding farther down the street.
  2. To announce with placards.
    to placard a sale
    • 1871, John Leighton, Paris under the Commune‎[2]:
      These men, who have already caused you so much harm, whom you yourselves dispersed on the 31st of October, are placarding their intention to protect you against the Prussians, who have only made an appearance within our walls, […]

Translations

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French

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Etymology

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Inherited from Old French derivative of plaquer (“to stick, to affix”). By surface analysis, plaque +‎ -ard.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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placard m (plural placards)

  1. a cupboard, cabinet or closet built against or into a wall
  2. an advertisement that is injurious, seditious or in otherwise bad taste
  3. (dated) a placard

Usage notes

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  • The use of placards for announcements by authorities having mostly disappeared, the word affiche frequently replaces it in that meaning.

Derived terms

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Further reading

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Middle French

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Alternative forms

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Noun

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placard m (plural placards)

  1. placard (public written notice)

Portuguese

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from French placard.

Noun

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placard m (plural placards)

  1. Alternative form of placar (“placard”)
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