plumbing

Etymology

It is formed from English plumb + -ing, partly from the verb and partly from the noun,^[2][3][4][5] and for the first sense the OED compares the earlier plumber.^[2] The noun plumb, a weight of lead on a line, came partly Old French plomee (“sounding lead”), partly directly Late Latin *plumba, from Latin plumbum (“lead”), a word of unknown origin.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The weighting of a fishing line with lead: about 1450, in a treatise on fishing.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In early Modern English the word meant the art of casting and working in lead.^[5] From 1742 to 1752 it also meant leadwork itself.^[2] The meaning of the water and drainage pipes and fittings of a building is recorded by 1875 in American English;^[5] the OED's first quotation is from a Massachusetts newspaper of 1893.^[2] Etymonline quotes an 1877 children's book explaining that the apparatus was called plumbing, lead-work, because its pipes were usually made of lead.^[5] In the 20th century the word was extended to systems of pipes or ducts in an engine (1929),^[2] to brass wind instruments in jazz slang (1935),^[2] to the channels that carry water or magma in a volcano (1937),^[2] and, humorously, to the body's internal organs, especially the urinary and genital organs (1942).^[2][6]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – the weighting of a fishing line; the action of plumbing.^[2][5]
• 1742–1752 – leadwork (now obsolete).^[2]
• 1875 – the water and drainage pipes of a building, in American English.^[5]
• 1896 – adjective, engaged in plumbing.^[2]
• 1929 – a system of pipes or connections in an engine.^[2]
• 1935 – jazz slang, brass wind instruments.^[2]
• 1942 – the body's urinary and genital organs.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The pipes, fixtures and other apparatus that carry water, gas and waste in a building: The old farmhouse needs new plumbing.^[7][4][2]
2. The work or trade of a plumber.^[7][4][2]
3. The act of using a plumb line to measure depth or test whether something is vertical.^[7][4]
4. (informal) A system of pipes or connections in an engine or other device.^[2][4]
5. (informal, humorous) The body's internal organs, especially the urinary system or the genitals.^[2][6]

Related words

• plumb
• plumber

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins