Etymology: < Middle French plage region (1377; 1290 in Old French in sense ‘expanse of land’; French plage (now archaic)) and its etymon classical Latin plaga region, climatic region, zone, in post-classical Latin also aisle, transept (c1400 in a British source: see below), perhaps < the same Indo-European base as Old High German flah flat (see flake n.²). In sense 4 < French plage (H. Deslandres 1898, in Comptes rendus hebd. de l'Acad. des Sci. 126 881). Compare Italian piaggia region (1374), and also Middle High German phlāge region of the world.In French the two words plage region and plage beach (see plage n.³) have been confused since the 16th cent. With sense 3 compare the following example of post-classical Latin plaga also in a source from Durham:?c1400 in J. Raine Hist. Dunelmensis Scriptores Tres (1839) 11 Ad orientalem ejusdem ecclesiæ plagam [sc. the triapsidal east end].

Etymology: < classical Latin plaga net, snare, also spider's web (Pliny), perhaps the same word as plaga region (see plage n.¹). In quot. 1608 threds and plages seem to be erroneously transposed (compare the post-classical Latin original).

Etymology: < French plage shore (1298 in Old French as plaje in an apparently isolated attestation (Marco Polo); subsequently from 1456 in Middle French) < a variant of Italian piaggia (late 13th cent.; c1300 as plaia , 1349 as plagia ) < post-classical Latin plagia , plaia coast, shore (from 5th cent.; frequently in southern Italian sources) and its etymon ancient Greek τὰ πλάγια sides of a mountain, use as noun of neuter plural of πλάγιος oblique (see plagio- comb. form). Compare earlier playa n., and the Romance forms listed at that entry.The post-classical Latin (and later the Italian) words are particularly associated with areas of southern Italy originally of Greek settlement; compare the Neapolitan place name Chiaia (c600 in post-classical Latin as Plaia).