Ploccian

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To pick, pull, or tug at something with a quick motion of the fingers, as in plucking fruit or feathers
2. An Old English verb meaning to pluck or pull, used of drawing something off or out with the hand
3. To take hold of something and pull it sharply, especially by plucking it from its place

Etymology: Ploccian is an Old English verb meaning "to pluck" or "to snatch," and its surviving record is thin: it appears in glossaries and a handful of texts, mostly translating Latin verbs of plucking or pulling. Its roots run back to Germanic, where forms with similar sounds and senses are attested, though the exact older form is reconstructed rather than directly recorded. Its interest lies mainly in what happened to it. Like many Old English verbs of this sort, it dropped out of use after the Norman Conquest, when French and Latin-derived vocabulary took over much of the everyday and learned register. Modern English has no direct descendant of the verb, so readers encounter it only in dictionaries and historical texts. The verb is best understood as a short-lived native word rather than a source of later English vocabulary. Its survival in the written record depends on a small number of glosses, which is why its meaning is known mostly through translation rather than through extended use.

Synonyms: pluck, pull, tug