plummet

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English plumet, also plomet and plommet,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman plumet, also plomet and Middle French plommet (“piece of lead”) and plombet.^[4][5][3][6] Older dictionaries call the source Old French.^[7][8][2] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from about 1200.^[4] It is a diminutive of plomb (“lead, sounding lead”) with the suffix -et,^[4][7][5][9] from Latin plumbum (“lead”),^[10][11][12] itself of uncertain origin.^[9] The verb is formed from the noun,^[4][7][8][6] and the noun meaning "a rapid fall" comes back from the verb.^[4] Etymonline compares plumben, which also meant to plunge downward.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A lead weight on a line for measuring the depth of water: about 1384, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible,^[4][7] at Acts 27:28.^[12] Etymonline dates the noun to the late 14th century.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The name of the sounding lead soon covered the weight of a plumb line as well, before 1398 in Trevisa,^[4][2] and Chaucer used plomet in his treatise on the astrolabe.^[13][14] Other pieces of lead took the name: a stick for writing or ruling lines from about 1440,^[4] a ball used as a weapon or ornament from 1452 to 1695,^[4] the weighted pommel of a sword in Scots,^[4][6][15] and an angler's weight from 1577.^[4] Figuratively it became a test of truth,^[4][6] and then, from the 1620s, anything that weighs a person down, as Johnson (1755) records under "any weight".^[4][16] The first verb, "to measure the depth of", dates from 1620 in the OED and 1626 in Barnhart,^[4][7] and was often figurative.^[4] The verb's modern sense, "to fall fast", goes back to 1845 in N. P. Willis,^[4][3] earlier than the 1933 date of the older dictionaries, which treat it as American and perhaps first used by aviators.^[7][8] The Oxford Dictionary of English still dates the current sense to the 1930s.^[17] It now also applies to figures and prices.^[3][6]

Timeline

• c. 1384 – a sounding lead.^[4][7]
• before 1398 – the weight of a plumb line.^[4][2]
• c. 1440 – a stick of lead for writing or ruling lines.^[4]
• 1452 – a ball of lead, as a weapon or ornament (obsolete by 1695).^[4]
• 1488 – in Scots, the pommel of a sword (obsolete by 1784).^[4]
• 1577 – a weight on a fishing line.^[4]
• 1620 – verb, to measure the depth of water.^[4] Barnhart dates this sense to 1626.^[7]
• 1845 – verb, to drop rapidly.^[4][3] Barnhart and Etymonline date this sense to 1933.^[7][8]
• 1855 – verb, to hurl down.^[4]
• 1957 – noun, a rapid fall.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lead weight on a line; a plumb bob; also, the whole plumb line.^[10][3][4]
2. A weight on a line for measuring the depth of water; a sounding lead.^[3][4][6]
3. A lead weight on an angler's line.^[10][3][4]
4. A rapid fall, chiefly figurative: the plummet of the company's shares.^[4]
5. (historical) A stick of lead used for writing or ruling lines.^[3][4][6]
6. (obsolete, 1623–1882) Something that weighs a person down.^[4][3][6]
7. (obsolete, 1452–1695) A ball of lead used as a weapon or to weigh something down, as on a scourge.^[4][3][6]
8. (obsolete, 1488–1784) In Scots, the weighted knob on the hilt of a sword.^[4][3][6]
9. (obsolete, 1578–1697) A weight in a clock.^[4][6]

Verb

1. To fall straight down at speed: The kite plummeted into the lake.^[10][3][4]
2. To drop sharply in amount or value: Ticket sales plummeted after the review.^[3][4][6]
3. To cause to fall rapidly.^[4][6]
4. (rare) To measure the depth of; to sound.^[4]

Word family

• unplummeted

Related words

• plumb
• plumber
• plunge
• aplomb

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Skeat, W. W., ed. (1894), The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. VI: Glossarial Index, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press