Platts

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A family name borne by people with this surname, typically of English or Scottish origin ; a price-reporting service that publishes benchmark assessments for oil, metals and other commodity markets
2. A surname shared by individuals across several generations and countries ; a company that gathers and publishes market price benchmarks for energy and metals trading
3. A hereditary family name carried by many people ; a business known for issuing industry price indexes used in energy and commodity markets

Etymology: "Platts" is the plural of "platt," which is a surname. The name traces back to a word that was once used in English for a small piece of ground. In Early Modern English, "platte" was a variant, probably dialectal, of "plot," meaning a plot of land, so a person known as Platt was likely connected with a small plot or patch of ground. The surname has a second possible root in Middle English "platten," the source of the verb "plait," meaning to fold or braid. The "plat" sense of folding and interweaving is the common thread between these related words, so the two lines of meaning are closely linked rather than entirely separate. As a surname, "platts" refers to several families who share the name, and the plural form is simply how the name is written when it refers to more than one family.