plunger

Etymology

It is formed from English plunge + -er.^[2][3][4][5] The verb is from Middle English plungen (late 14th century), from Old French plongier (“to plunge, sink into, dive”), from Vulgar Latin *plumbicō (“to heave the lead”), from Latin plumbum (“lead”),^[3][2] perhaps first of a sounding lead or a net weighted with lead.^[3] The OED compares French plongeur (“someone who plunges or dives”), recorded once in Old French around 1306 and then from 1606, and, for the diving bird, the earlier English noun plungeon.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person or thing that plunges or dives; a diver: 1611, in Cotgrave's French–English dictionary.^[2][6] Etymonline dates the agent noun to the 1610s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) knew only the sense "one that plunges; a diver".^[7] From 1655 the word was used of a diving bird; from 1722 it also named a piston, as of a pump or syringe, and of other parts that work with a plunging or thrusting motion;^[2] Etymonline finds such mechanical uses by 1777.^[3] The 19th century added the dasher of a churn (1838), the firing pin of a breech-loading gun (1866), knobs and levers working railway signals (1877) and the iron core of a solenoid (1890).^[2] The plumber's tool, a rubber (at first leather) cup on a long handle that clears blocked pipes by suction, is recorded from 1885,^[2] although Etymonline found it only by 1936;^[3] jazz trumpeters and trombonists took the name for a mute from its resemblance to that tool (1934).^[2] In slang a plunger was a cavalryman (1854),^[2] and in Australia from 1868 a reckless gambler, one who "plunges" deep into the game.^[8][2] An 1870 Sydney paper already called the word, for a man of fast habits, common.^[8] In Northumberland and Durham coal mining it was a ram or piston for forcing water, and in Shropshire a long shaft plunged into the river to drive fish into a trammel net.^[9]

Timeline

• 1611 – a person or thing that plunges or dives.^[2][6]
• 1655 – a diving bird.^[2]
• 1722 – a piston, as of a pump or syringe.^[2]
• 1838 – the dasher of a churn.^[2]
• 1854 – in military slang, a cavalryman (now historical).^[2]
• 1866 – the firing pin of some breech-loading guns.^[2]
• 1868 – a reckless gambler or speculator.^[2][8]
• 1885 – a rubber cup on a handle used to clear blocked pipes.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1936.^[3]
• 1890 – the iron core of an induction coil or solenoid.^[2]
• 1934 – a mute for a trumpet or trombone.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tool made of a rubber suction cup on a handle, used to clear blocked drains and pipes: She worked the plunger until the sink drained.^[10][11][2]
2. A part of a machine that moves with a plunging or thrusting motion, such as a piston.^{[10][11][6][2]}
3. (informal) A reckless gambler or speculator.^[10][6][8]
4. A person or thing that plunges; a diver.^[11][6][2]
5. (jazz) A mute for a trumpet or trombone, shaped like the plumber's tool.^[2]

Related words

• plunge
• plumb
• plummet
• plumber

References

1. ^ a b 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 t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
9. ^ 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)
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin