plumber
English
Etymology
From Middle English plumber, from Old French plummier (French plombier); from Latin plumbārius, from plumbum (“lead or lead shot”).
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈplʌmɚ/
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈplʌmə/
Audio (UK) (file) - Rhymes: -ʌmə(ɹ)
- Homophone: Plummer
Noun
plumber (plural plumbers)
- One who works in or with lead.
- One who furnishes, fits, and repairs pipes and other apparatus for the conveyance of water, gas, or drainage.
- One who installs piping for potable and waste water.
- A person who investigates or prevents leaks of information.
- 1979, United States. Congress. House. Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Subcommittee on Legislation, Espionage Laws and Leaks: Hearings Before the Subcommittee...
- It involved the break-in of the office of Mr. Lewis Fielding, Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist, by the White House “plumbers.”
- 1979, United States. Congress. House. Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Subcommittee on Legislation, Espionage Laws and Leaks: Hearings Before the Subcommittee...
- (Britain, informal) In the Royal Navy, an apprentice, a boy aged 16 to 18, who is trained in technical skills at the Dockyard Schools to become an artificer.
- (medicine, slang) A urologist.
- 1958, Father Provincial Assumption B.V.M. Monastery, The Chronicle (volumes 12-13, page 39)
- […] began the month with an operation at St. Joseph Hospital in Aurora, Ill. His surgeon, by the way, was a "plumber” – urologist.
- 1983, Toni Martin, How to Survive Medical School (page 127)
- Within surgery, the "cleaner" specialties, such as cardiac and neurosurgery, outrank the plumbers (urologists) and proctologists.
- 1958, Father Provincial Assumption B.V.M. Monastery, The Chronicle (volumes 12-13, page 39)
Derived terms
Terms derived from plumber
- plumber block
- plumber's cleavage
- plumber's crack
- plumber's helper
- plumber's snake
- plumbery
Related terms
- plumbing
Descendants
- → Irish: pluiméir
- → Welsh: plymer
Translations
one who works in lead
|
one who fits, etc, pipes for water, gas or drainage
|
References
- Corpun.com, a specialized website on Corporal Punishments
Anagrams
- replumb
Latin
Verb
plumber
- first-person singular present passive subjunctive of plumbō