overplotn.
/ˈəʊvəplɒt/, U.S. /ˈoʊvərˌplɑt/ΚΠ
1797 W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. 23 577 By means of this over-plot, (for we may not call the adventures of the gods an underplot,) these three distinct actions are completely braided into one main knot.
2. A plot relating to a higher level than the subordinate plot or plots of a drama. Also in extended use.
ΚΠ
1907 Mod. Lang. Notes 22 67/2 There is built up an objective drama—forming a sort of overplot—more or less closely related to the main interests.
1967 Renaissance Q. 20 269 The tragedy of Hotspur is the ‘main plot’, and the history of Henry iv is the ‘overplot’.
1989 A. B. Giamatti Take Time For Paradise iii. 84 What are the narrative principles of baseball, its over-plot?
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
overplotv.
/ˌəʊvəˈplɒt/, U.S. /ˌoʊvərˈplɑt/ΚΠ
1748 S. Richardson Clarissa IV. ii. 16 I have overplotted myself.
2. transitive. To provide (a story, etc.) with an excessively complex, contrived, or elaborate plot. N.E.D. (1904) lists over-plot at Over- 27 as being evidenced earlier than 1800, but as no quotations were printed in support of the lemma, it cannot confidently be assigned to this sense.
ΚΠ
1961 Webster's 3rd New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. Overplot,..to devise an unduly complex or elaborate plot for (as a novel).
1975 College Eng. 37 71/1 The novel is heavily overplotted with too-systematic advance and return along the path of déjà-vu geography, and overcharactered with transparent parallels, doublings, and triplings of beautiful-boy analogues.
1990 Toronto Star (Nexis) 19 Sept. f2 If I overplot a book..it becomes sort of rigid. It loses that bounce that a story must have for me.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1797v.1748