Lead: Encyclopedia II - Lead - Language derivations

Lead - Language derivations

The Latin plumbum has given birth to a number of terms in the English language:

• Plumbing, or system of piping, derives from the fact that pipes were once made of lead.
• Plumb bob or plummet, a small, pointed body of metal the weight of which is used to draw a string vertical under tension, refers to the fact that they were originally made from lead.
• Plumb wall is so-said because a plumb bob is used to find the vertical.
• Plumbing the depths derives from the use of the lead weight to draw the sounding line down to the bottom of the water body (or to the end of the line if the water's really deep!).
• Plumb crazy may derive from the fact that lead poisoning can cause insanity; or, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, from a U.S. sense of plum (derived from plumb) meaning 'completely'.
• Plumbism is the medical term for lead poisoning.
• Aplomb comes from the French à plomb, meaning plumb vertical, and therefore confident and cool.

The plum, however, does not get its name from this root. Rather, plum is derived from the Old English word plume.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Language derivations", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki