plumber
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English plumber, from Old French plummier (French plombier); from Latin plumbārius, from plumbum (“lead or lead shot”).
Pronunciation edit
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈplʌmɚ/
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈplʌmə/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - Rhymes: -ʌmə(ɹ)
- Homophone: Plummer
Noun edit
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.”
- (British, 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.
Derived terms edit
Terms derived from plumber
Related terms edit
Descendants edit
Translations edit
one who works in lead
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one who fits, etc, pipes for water, gas or drainage
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References edit
- Corpun.com, a specialized website on Corporal Punishments [1]
Anagrams edit
Latin edit
Verb edit
plumber