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https://etymology.en-academic.com/27822/plumber

https://etymology.en-academic.com/27820/plumb

It appears you are wrong, and the person you are replying to was correct. Perhaps when baldly contradicting someone, you could make some effort to back up your opinion.




The first 2 meanings of plumb from the site you link is:

https://etymology.en-academic.com/27820/plumb

plumb plumb {{11}}plumb (adj.) "perpendicular, vertical," mid-15c., from PLUMB (Cf. plumb) (n.). The notion of "exact measurement" led to extended sense of "completely, downright" (1748), sometimes spelled plump or plunk.

{{12}}plumb (n.) c.1300, "lead hung on a string to show the vertical line," from O.Fr. plombe, plomme "sounding lead," from L.L. plumba, originally plural of L. plumbum "lead," the metal, of unknown origin, related to Gk. molybdos "lead"

Neither have anything to do with pouring molten lead. Only measuring the vertical.

The purpose of finding the vertical is to determine the horizontal in installing sloped pipe.


Whilst "plumb" comes the Latin for "lead", so does "plumber", and from a different and earlier path than "plumb". Quoting https://www.etymonline.com/word/plumber#etymonline_v_17491 :

> late 14c. (from c. 1100 as a surname), "a worker in any sort of lead" (roofs, gutters, pipes), from Old French plomier "lead-smelter" (Modern French plombier) and directly from Latin plumbarius "worker in lead," noun use of adjective meaning "pertaining to lead," from plumbum "lead" (see plumb (n.)). The meaning focused 19c. on "workman who installs pipes and fittings" as lead pipes for conveying water and gas became the principal concern of the trade.

We can read Vitruvius' description of chorobates at https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius... (Note that https://ethw.org/Roman_Aqueducts claims "the credit given to this instrument by Vitruvius was out of proportion to its real usefulness.")

> The chorobates is a rod about •twenty feet in length, having two legs at its extremities of equal length and dimensions, and fastened to the ends of the rod at right angles with it; between the rod and the legs are cross pieces fastened with tenons, whereon vertical lines are correctly marked, through which correspondent plumb lines hang down from the rod. When the rod is set, these will coincide with the lines marked, and shew that the instrument stands level.

The Latin for "plumb lines" is seen in "quae habent lineas ad perpendiculum recte descriptas pendentiaque ex regula perpendicula in singulis partibus" - Vitruvius does not use a variation of "plumb" to describe those verticals.

That usage, from the quoted etymology, wasn't created for another 1,000+ years.

I could be wrong of course, but the evidence I've seen doesn't support your claim at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33765351 .


I skimmed what appear to be reliable references, and they all mention the Latin -> French -> English etymology for plumber, and they do not reference "plumb" in the sense you are using.

I suspect that plunging in and making a poor argument doesn't reflect well upon you. I am happy to be corrected, if you can provide a rock-solid reference: the English language is a wonderful midden.




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