英语词汇plumb的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

plumb; plumber; plumb crazy, etc. A carpenter’s plumb line is a lead weight on a string used to mark a true perpendicular, so that a house or floor, etc., is not “out of plumb,” but corre- sponds to the perpendicular. Plumb (here pronounced “plum”) derives from the Latin plumbun, “lead,” the same word that plumber derives from, because a plumber works (or used to) with lead pipes. Since a plumb line is completely or absolutely perpendicular, the word plumb became an adverb meaning “completely or absolutely” in phrases like plumb crazy, plumb mad, and plumb tired. Its use is confined to informal or collo- quial speech, but the expression is heard frequently. Plumb also means “very, completely, quite,” as in “I plumb forgot about it.” An old joke claims “There’s a town [near Bluefield, West Vir- ginia] called Plumnearly—plumb down in West Virginia and nearly in Virginia.”

词汇	plumb
词源	plumb; plumber; plumb crazy, etc. A carpenter’s plumb line is a lead weight on a string used to mark a true perpendicular, so that a house or floor, etc., is not “out of plumb,” but corre- sponds to the perpendicular. Plumb (here pronounced “plum”) derives from the Latin plumbun, “lead,” the same word that plumber derives from, because a plumber works (or used to) with lead pipes. Since a plumb line is completely or absolutely perpendicular, the word plumb became an adverb meaning “completely or absolutely” in phrases like plumb crazy, plumb mad, and plumb tired. Its use is confined to informal or collo- quial speech, but the expression is heard frequently. Plumb also means “very, completely, quite,” as in “I plumb forgot about it.” An old joke claims “There’s a town [near Bluefield, West Vir- ginia] called Plumnearly—plumb down in West Virginia and nearly in Virginia.”
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