supplant

WOTD – 8 February 2010    

English

Alternative forms

• supplaunt (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French supplanter, from Latin supplantō (“trip up”), from sub (“under”) + planta (“sole”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: səpläntʹ, IPA: /səˈplɑːnt/, X-SAMPA: /s@"plA:nt/
• Rhymes: -ɑːnt
• (US, Canada, Northern England) enPR: səplăntʹ, IPA: /səˈplænt/, X-SAMPA: /s@"pl{nt/
• Rhymes: -ænt

Verb

supplant (third-person singular simple present supplants, present participle supplanting, simple past and past participle supplanted)

1. (transitive) To take the place of; to replace, to supersede.

   Will online dictionaries ever supplant paper dictionaries?

2. (transitive, obsolete) To uproot, to remove violently.
   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 3 scene 2

     Trinculo, if you trouble him any more in's tale, by this hand, I will supplant some of your teeth.

Synonyms

• (replace): dethrone, oust, replace, supersede, take over from
• (remove violently): uproot, wrench out

Translations

to take the place of, to replace

• Finnish: korvata (fi)
• French: supplanter (fr)
• German: verdrängen (de), ersetzen (de)
• Portuguese: suplantar (pt), substituir (pt)

• Russian: вытеснять, выживать
• Spanish: suplantar (es)
• Swedish: ersätta (sv)

to remove violently

• French: détrôner (fr), déposer (fr), dézinguer (fr), renverser (fr), éradiquer (fr)
• Italian: detronizzare (it), rovesciare (it)

• Russian: искоренить (ru) (iskorenít') n
• Spanish: destronar (es), derribar (es), derrocar (es)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Arabic: يحل محل
• German: verdrängen, ausstechen