Etymologically
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plumbing

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 26 October 2026 at 03:15. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈplʌmɪŋ/[1]

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]
  • 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