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plashta, plashti, plasti noun a cloak or shawl; a handkerchief 19-20. Compare plastie etymology: Romany; Borrow suggests: ‘probably derived from Wallachian [modern Romanian] postat ‘a sheet’; form plashti ‘a handerchief’ attested by Perthshire and Argyleshire Tinkler-Gypsies; forms plashti, plasti collected by RD note:

Lexicon Balatronicum (1811) cites caster ‘a cloak’ as Cant and possibly has a connection with this. Smart & Crofton (1875) collected the form Plaáshtan with the same meaning from English Gypsies, they also collected forms Póktan, Poxtan meaning ‘cloth’ from the same source.

WG further suggests that it could be from Gaelic plaide, itself from Scots plaidie.