plumb

Forms

plumb n (uncountable, “lead”); m (plural plumbi, “bullet”); n (plural plumburi, “lead seal; pencil”)^[2][1] Old texts also have plum: „Talgere de plum” “plates of lead”, in a record printed in Hasdeu's Cuvente den bătrâni.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin plumbum (“lead”).^{[4][3][5][6][7][1]} Aromanian pl'umbu means both “lead” and “bullet”.^[4][8] The Romance cognates include Italian piombo, Occitan plom, French plomb, Spanish plomo and Portuguese chumbo.^[4][9]

The origin of the Latin word is obscure: de Vaan follows Beekes in connecting it with a Celtic word for lead, not with Ancient Greek μόλυβδος (mólubdos), and thinks both may have been borrowed from another language.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578), and Tiktin cites the canticle of Exodus 15:10 in that psalter.^[6][5] The same verse in the Bible of 1688 shows the sense “lead” as a heavy metal: „Să afundară ca plumbul în apă mare” “they sank like lead in the mighty water”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The heavy metal is the core sense, and Neculce writes of a monastery roofed with lead.^[3] Its weight gave the comparison ca plumbul “as heavy as lead”^[2] and a figurative somn de plumb “a deep, leaden sleep”.^[11][12] Things made of lead took the name: the bullet, the lead seal put on bales of cloth at the customs, and the weight of a plumb line.^[6][5][11] In the bullet sense the word is masculine, with the plural plumbi: Alecsandri's captain hands out „praf și plumbi” “powder and bullets”.^[5][2]

The sense “pencil” is recorded by Tiktin, Scriban and Șăineanu as Moldavian, and DEX labels it regional.^{[5][11][12][2]} Plumb de placă was the slate pencil used to write on school slates.^[2][6]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – plumb in the Psaltirea Scheiană, the first record.^[6][5]
• 1660 – plumb in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• 1688 – ca plumbul “like lead” in the Bucharest Bible (Exodus 15:10).^[5][14]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda gives the sense “lead bullet” besides the metal.^[15]
• 1939 – Scriban records the Moldavian sense “pencil”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. lead: the soft, heavy, bluish-grey metal used for pipes, linings and battery plates;^[2][6][1] ca plumbul “heavily, like lead”.^[2][6][1]
2. (masculine) A bullet or projectile.^[2][1]
3. (dated, regional) A small disc of lead used to seal parcels, wagons and sacks; also a lead weight used as ballast.^[2][6]
4. (regional, chiefly Moldavia) A pencil;^[2][1] plumb de placă, a slate pencil.^[2][1]

Word family

• plumbos
• plumbar
• plumburiu
• plumbui
• plumbuitor

Related words

• Aromanian pl'umbu
• Latin plumbum

Usage notes

Apă de plumb is a basic solution of lead acetate used in medicine.^[2] The plural shows the sense: plumbi are bullets, plumburi seals or pencils.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 835
3. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. plumb
4. ^ a b c Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. plumb
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. plumb
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 428
7. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 118
8. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 145
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6615
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1001
12. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 489
13. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. plumb
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ex 15:10
15. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 516