Pleasan

Pleasan is an archaic English noun historically used to denote a place of pleasure or the quality of being pleasant. In practice, pleasan appeared in two related senses: as a physical space—a garden, park, or other designed leisure ground attached to a manor or estate—and as an attribute describing agreeable or pleasant qualities in a person or thing.

Etymology and forms. The term derives from Old French plaisir (pleasure) and the related medieval English noun pleasance or pleasance, with pleasan appearing as a variant spelling in early modern texts. The connected noun pleasance continued to be used for the cultivated grounds of an estate, whereas pleasan itself became uncommon and largely obsolete.

Historical usage. In estate and land descriptions from the late Middle Ages to the Early Modern period, a pleasance or pleasan referred to a landscaped area intended for strolls, social gatherings, and leisure. Such grounds might include tree-lined avenues, groves, water features, and pavilions, and they were typically distinguished from other parts of the property such as the deer park, kitchen garden, or manor house.

Modern status. Today pleasan is rarely encountered outside historical scholarship and place-name references. The more common modern terms for the concept are pleasance (as a noun for a pleasure garden) or simply “pleasure ground.” The spelling pleasan survives chiefly in historical documents and in some British place names and archival references.