Etymology

pliant

pli·ant
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Today it means: Capable of plying or bending; readily yielding to force or pressure without breaking. Full definition →

Middle English pliaunt ← Old French ploiant
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The story

  1. Old French · derived fromploiant
  2. Middle English · inherited frompliaunt
  3. English todaypliant

From Middle English pliaunt, from Old French ploiant, present participle of ploiier (“to fold”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.