plumbum
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of plumbum
Borrowed into English from Latin around 1910–15
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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 • Feb. 4, 2016
Being apparently insoluble, it was used to line aqueducts and make water pipes - the word "plumber" derives from the Latin for lead, plumbum.
From BBC • Oct. 11, 2014
Agricola himself coined the term plumbum cinereum for bismuth, no doubt following the Roman term for tin—plumbum candidum.
From De Re Metallica, Translated from the First Latin Edition of 1556 by Agricola, Georgius
A Plummer, i.e. a man who worked in lead, Lat. plumbum, is now written, by etymological reaction, plumber, though the restored letter is not sounded.
From The Romance of Names by Weekley, Ernest
Itaque hominum intellectui non plumae addendae, sed plumbum potius, et pondera; ut cohibeant omnem saltum et volatum.
From Introduction to the Philosophy and Writings of Plato by Taylor, Thomas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
