plumbum

American  

[pluhm-buhm] / ˈplʌm bəm /

noun

Chemistry.

1. lead.

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plumbum British  

/ ˈplʌmbəm /

noun

1. an obsolete name for lead 2

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Etymology

Origin of plumbum

Borrowed into English from Latin around 1910–15

Example Sentences

The warnings about lead poisoning, however, are also as old as Roman civilization — as is the word for plumbing, which comes from the Latin word for lead, “plumbum.”

From Los Angeles Times

The Romans used lead in jewelry, cooking pots, utensils, wine, cosmetics, water pipes—“plumbing” comes from plumbum, Latin for lead—even as they recognized that lead exposure could cause paralysis, delirium, sterility, and palsy.

From The New Yorker

The Roman term was plumbum candidum, and as a result of Agricola's insistence on using it and stannum in what he conceived was their original sense, he managed to give considerable confusion to mineralogic literature for a century or two.

From Project Gutenberg

Plumbum candidum is whiter and plumbum nigrum is darker, as you see.

From Project Gutenberg

Agricola himself coined the term plumbum cinereum for bismuth, no doubt following the Roman term for tin—plumbum candidum.

From Project Gutenberg