Wednesday, June 8, 2011

WordPlay: Plete

I was thinking of a word I could share today and I thought I'd go back to my roots. I was born in Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines and I grew up with our local Ilocano dialect.But I don't get to interact with many Iloco's from where I live now so I don't get to practice my Ilocano verses that much.

But I still speak Ilocano and still understand Ilocano words. I just remembered a word I want to share, plete.

I asked our house helper, Kailan po uwi ni Gigi? (When is Gigi going home?). I was referring to her daughter who was with her for whole summer vacation. She is from Pangasinan, another northern province that is generally Ilocano speaking and Pangalatot (the local dialect for people in Pangasinan).

She answered Depende ah nu adda pag plete na. Now that was Ilocano. translated, "it depends if she has something to spend for transportation fare".

I haven't heard that word for a long time. Plete means fare, or money you use to pay for your fare.

Like the purpose of this blog, we find the meaning and origin of words. I searched fort he meaning and plete has indeed an english meaning.

Plete\, v. t. & i. To plead. [Obs.] --P. Plowman. Click here for reference

And if you will try to search further, plete is not an Ilocano word afterall.

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