Plaques

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Flat or raised areas that occur on the skin or inside the body due to accumulation of various substances
2. Flat plates made of metal, wood, or other materials used to honor or identify people or events ; build-ups on tissues or surfaces that can lead to health problems
3. Engraved or inscribed panels used as awards or memorials ; layers of material forming on organs or surfaces that impair normal function

Etymology: Before it meant a memorial tablet or a patch of diseased tissue, the root idea was a patch of cloth. The Proto-Germanic "plaggą" meant "patch," and its descendants drifted in meaning toward rags, stains, and even clothing: Swedish "plagg" still means garment today. The same family produced the German "Placken," a spot or patch. The English word arrived by way of French, where "plaque" meant a plate or sheet of metal, or a slab of marble. French had borrowed it from Middle Dutch "placken," meaning to beat metal into a thin plate, and the sense of a flat, thin object is what carried into English. The medical sense, a deposit on teeth or artery walls, grew out of the same image of a layer laid on a surface. The plural "plaques" is simply the regular form of "plaque," used for both the commemorative and the medical senses.

Synonyms: trophies, awards