▪ I. plage1
(see below)
Also 4 plaag, 6 plague.
[a. OF. plage region (1290 in Hatz.-Darm.):—late L. plagia (see Du Cange) a plain, shore, prop. adj. (plagia regio), f. plaga a region. So It. piaggia.
Hatz.-Darm. take plage in the sense ‘littoral tract, shore’ to represent plagia, but in the sense ‘region, extent of land’ to be a learned formation from plaga.]
† 1. A region, district, clime; sometimes, a zone. Obs.
| c 1386 Chaucer Man of Law's T. 445 Payens that conquereden al aboute The plages of the North. 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) II. 53 The prouince Lindeseience, whiche longede somme tyme to the Marches, dothe diuide Northumbrelonde from that other plage. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VI 185 King Henry..nesteled and strengthend him and his alyes in the North regions and boreal plage. 1586 Marlowe 1st Pt. Tamburl. iv. iv, From the frozen plage of Heaven. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage viii. i. 602 A Plage, plagued with scorching heats. |
† 2. Any one of the four principal directions or quarters of the compass; direction, side. Obs.
| 1382 Wyclif Ezek. vii. 2 Ende cometh vp on the foure plagis, or parties, of the erthe [1388 on foure coostis of the lond]. c 1391 Chaucer Astrol. i. §5 The 4 quarters of thin astrelabie, deuyded after the 4 principals plages or quarters of the firmament. 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 115 The mownte off Caluarye is at the northe plage of the mownte of Syon. 1501 Douglas Pal. Hon. i. 195 Ane dyn I hard approching..Quhilk mouit fra the plague Septentrionall. 1590 Serpent of Devis. C j, A large Commit [= comet] of stremes, whose branches reacht on the foure plagues on the firmament. 1652 J. Wright tr. Camus' Nat. Paradox vii. 151 Heavens alter the motion of your Sphears, and thou Sun..go take thy Resting-place in the Orientall plage. |
† 3. One of the divisions or parts of a church, esp. a transept. rare. Obs.
| [c 1214 Gauf. de Coldingham in Scriptores Tres Dunelm. (Surtees) 11 Ad orientalem ejusdem ecclesiæ plagam [i.e. the triapsidal east end].] 1593 Rites of Durham (Surtees 1903) 23 Hee lyeth buryed..in the north plage. Ibid. 30 Johne Hemmyngbrowghe..lieth buried in the south plage. |
4. With pronunc. (plɑːʒ). [OF. plage in sense ‘shore’.] The beach or sea-front promenade at a seaside resort. Hence (by metonymy) a seaside resort.
| 1888 Mrs. H. Ward R. Elsmere III. xlvi. 320 They would stroll back..past the hotels on the plage. 1890 E. Dowson Let. 22 Aug. (1967) 160, I leave for Bognor about the 1st... My people are all away at that delectable plage. 1905 W. J. Locke Morals M. Ordeyne xii. 144 To strut about a fashionable plage in white ducks. 1907 Daily Chron. 5 July 6/3 Mr. Justice Bucknill asked the witness what the ‘plage’ at Sandown was, but she did not know... It is the promenade. Your Lordship knows the plage at Ostend... I think my friend will agree that the plage at Ostend is the dullest of all plages. 1919 W. T. Grenfell Labrador Doctor (1920) ii. 18 There were horses to ride also and a beautiful ‘plage’ to bathe upon. 1929 Star 21 Aug. 7/1 There is a certain appropriateness in the fact that Mr. Baldwin is once more recuperating at Aix-les-Bains..which lacks all the hectic amenities of the more sophisticated plages. 1937 G. Frankau More of Us xiv. 143 Down to the plage, legitimate, she trod, Seeking the Bar Au Bleu. 1950 G. Brenan Face of Spain v. 103 Marbella..has been turned into a fashionable plage. 1959 F. Stark Riding to Tigris 98 A plage of a few reed huts was on the sandy bank. 1973 D. Walker Black Dougal xxiv. 194 A man who clearly loved to see his pretty wife dressed for the plage. |
5. Astr. (pleɪdʒ). [a. F. plage (used in this sense by H. Deslandres 1898, in Compt. Rend. CXXVI. 881).] A region of the sun's chromosphere, usually associated with sunspots, which is bright in the emission spectra of calcium and hydrogen. Also attrib., as plage region.
| 1949 Astrophysical Jrnl. CX. 244 Flares which became at least twice as bright as the surrounding plage. 1953 Observatory LXXIII. 116 There were three principal calcium plage regions. 1954 Astrophysical Jrnl. CXIX. 564 There are many plages in which spots do not become visible; but we do not..have any observations of a spot without at least some trace of a bright, associated plage. 1963 H. J. & E. v. P. Smith Solar Flares i. 17 Plages..are chromospheric phenomena, and must be observed in the monochromatic light of higher excitation lines such as Hα or the K line of ionized calcium. 1970 Nature 18 Apr. 249/2 Several prominences and a plage region are clearly visible in Lyman α. |
▪ II. † plage2 Obs. rare—1.
Also plague.
[ad. L. plaga net, snare.]
A net, snare, toil.
| 1608 Topsell Serpents 273 Spyders..hang their threds in ayre aboue, By plages [1658 plagues] vnseene to th' eye of man. [Here threds and plages seem to be erroneously transposed. The Latin rendered is: Sed liciis hinc densioribus plagas In aere appendunt.] |
▪ III. plage
obs. form of plague, pledge.