"go to plan" (1936, UK)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

The OED3 draft entry for "plan" includes "according to plan" ('as
intended or projected') from 1893, including cites for "go according
to plan". Not included is "go to plan" in the same sense, particularly
in the expression "if all goes to plan" ('if all goes well'). It seems
to be a pretty common construction these days, at least in
newspaperese, e.g.:

---
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OLY_ATH_TRACK_AND_FIELD?SITE=AP
And that supposed U.S. track and field juggernaut? Well, things aren't
quite going to plan.
---

It appears to be orig. UK, since a ProQuest search finds cites from
the _Guardian_ (a recent addition to ProQuest) well before anything
from the U.S. (Even the 1957 Tribune cite below is from a
correspondent in the UK, who could have been influenced by British
usage.)

---
1936 _Manchester Guardian_ 6 July 3/1 All went to plan, and off the
return Hughes made the winning volley.
---
1945 _Manchester Guardian_ 23 June 5/6 If all goes to plan, the
impression is made of the judgments penetrating far into the crevices
of Germany's erstwhile police State.
---
1946 _Manchester Guardian_ 9 Jan. 5/1 If all goes to plan the Assembly
should reach the committee stage about a week after its first meeting.
---
1946 _Manchester Guardian_ 21 Aug. 5/1 If all goes to plan these
elections are to be held next November.
---
1957 _Chicago Daily Tribune_ 25 Feb. II5/2 The outline is to be filled
in during the next three years before, if all goes to plan, there must
be an election.
---


--Ben Zimmer

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org