pleca

Where it comes from

Inherited from Latin plicāre (“to fold”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ-. Compare Aromanian plec, plicari. The semantic shift from "fold" to "leave" may be because to Proto-Romanian speakers, the word became associated with the folding up of tents to leave and move, especially as the pastoral lifestyle was important in their culture (cf. also the Latin expression plicāre tentōria, in the military context of folding up tents in a camp to move on, or French plier bagage). In contrast, Iberian Romance languages developed the opposite meaning from the same Latin word; compare Spanish llegar (“to arrive”), Portuguese chegar (“to arrive”); here, naval tradition was more important and the meaning may have come from folding sails when arriving at port. Doublet of plia, which was borrowed from French.