Checking out the sole that is at the bottom of one's foot and checking on the soul that is differentiated from the body led to some soul-searching (and some solo reading) on the part of a listener.

He wrote in to share his discovery. It turns out, he told us, that the plantar's wart naming a wart on the sole of the foot has nothing to do with walking barefoot on plantation lands and everything to do with the Latin planta, meaning "sole of the foot." This was news to him, since he had assumed plantar ended with the letters "er," not "ar," and that planter referred to a plantation owner.

Although his initial theory did not pan out, we're happy to report at least a superficial link between the words plantar (with two a's) and plantation. The plantare (meaning "to plant; fix in place") that grew into plantation comes from the Latin planta that means "plant." Plantar—the sole-of-the-feet plantar—also comes from the Latin planta, but this is a different planta. This sole-of-the-feet planta gave our lexicon not only the word plantar but also plantain (its broad leaves resembled feet), supplant (from the idea of tripping up the feet), and place (from the idea of feet firmly on the ground).