PLOT  , a

term originally meaning a space of ground used for a specific purpose, especially as a building site, formerly in frequent usage in the sense of a plan, a surveyed space of ground; hence the literary sense of a plan or design . The word is of doubtful origin; there is a collateral form " plat," which appears in the 16th century, according to the New English Dictionary, under the influence of " plat, " flat place, surface (Fr. plat, Late Lat. plattus, probably from Gr. iXar6r, broad) . Skeat (Etym . Diet.) refers " plot," in the sense of a space of ground, to the O . Eng. plaec, Mid . Eng . Aleck, later platch, patch .