Origin of the term "Plant" as in "Plant and Equipment"

[John Gaunt]

I'm not sure if this is the correct section for this question. Moderators / admin please move if you feel necessary to do so.

An American friend has asked me why we use the word "Plant" in the UK (and elsewhere ?) to denote equipment, e.g. construction equipment. I have to be honest in that I have no idea and wondered if anyone here could help me.

[marshallmp6]

That is an interesting question because the term is often used in Australia as well ......... Perhaps we learnt from you Brits ????? It will be interesting to see some of the "answers". Cheers Don.

[martyn williams]

Hello John
I have a lot of plant in my garden as you know
Plant can mean many things,a static installation that produces gas,like the house of commons.or a refinery for oil/petrol.
Don't know where the term for machinery dozers etc came from.
Will have to google it.
How are you by the way ?
Cheers
Martyn

[John Gaunt]

Hello John
I have a lot of plant in my garden as you know
Plant can mean many things,a static installation that produces gas,like the house of commons.or a refinery for oil/petrol.
Don't know where the term for machinery dozers etc came from.
Will have to google it.
How are you by the way ?
Cheers
Martyn

Hi Martyn, I think your garden is somewhat unusual though, clearly you don't prune your plant as much as other do !
You're right about the wider use of the word 'Plant' as many factories etc. have 'Plant Rooms' where equipment is housed.
It seems the term is much more widely used than just the UK.
I'm fine - send you a PM with some details.
Cheers John.

[John Gaunt]

Well, here is a response from another source which makes sense....

The origin of the word plant is the Latin word planta for sprout.
The verb apposite to Latin planta is plantare meaning 'to drive into the ground with the foot'.

Sense of a building "planted" or begun for an industrial process is first attested 1789 by using the word in the sense of implanted, rooted, anchored.
Some times later the word plant for the place where heavy machinery was produced, was transferred to the machinery itself.

Source(s):
http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/ga…
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term…

[martyn williams]

I wonder what they call plant in Brussels ? Brussel Sprout
Martyn
Got your message John