Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PLAN, n. [Fr. G. D. Dan. Sw. and Russ. plan. The Italian has pianta, a plant, and a plan, and in Welsh, plan is a shoot, cion, plantation or planting, and a plane. Hence plan, plain, plane and plant are from one root. The primary sense of the verb is to extend.]

1. A draught or form; properly, the representation of any thing drawn on a plane, as a map or chart, which is a representation of some portion of land or water. But the word is applied particularly to the model of a building, showing the form, extent and divisions in miniature, and it may be applied to the draught or representation of any projected work on paper or on a plain surface; as, the plan of a town or city, or of a harbor or fort. The form of a machine in miniature, is called a model.
2. A scheme devised; a project; the form of something to be done existing in the mind, with the several parts adjusted in idea, expressed in words or committed to writing; as, the plan of a constitution of government; the plan of a treaty; the plan of an expedition.