plumber

English

Etymology

From Middle English plumber, from Old French plummier (French plombier); from Latin plumbārius, from plumbum (“lead or lead shot”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈplʌmɚ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈplʌmə/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmə(ɹ)
• Homophone: Plummer

Noun

plumber (plural plumbers)

1. One who works in or with lead.
2. One who furnishes, fits, and repairs pipes and other apparatus for the conveyance of water, gas, or drainage.
   1. One who installs piping for potable and waste water.
3. 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.”

4. (UK, 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.
5. (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

Terms derived from plumber

• plumber block
• plumber's cleavage
• plumber's crack
• plumber's helper
• plumber's snake
• plumbery
• plumber wrench

Related terms

• plumbing

Descendants

• → Irish: pluiméir
• → Welsh: plymer

Translations

one who works in lead

• Danish: vvs-mand c
• Dutch: loodgieter (nl) m
• Esperanto: plumbisto
• Finnish: lyijytyöntekijä
• French: (obsolete) plombeur (fr) m
• German: Bleiarbeiter, Bleiarbeiterin f
• Hungarian: ólomöntő, ólomforrasztó, (chiefly tinsmith) bádogos (hu)
• Indonesian: tukang ledeng, tukang pipa
• Latin: plumbārius m
• Portuguese: chumbeiro m
• Romanian: plumbar m (obsolete)
• Spanish: plomero (es) m

one who fits, etc, pipes for water, gas or drainage

• Afrikaans: loodgieter
• Arabic: سَبَّاك (ar) m (sabbāk)
• Basque: iturgin (eu)
• Belarusian: вадаправо́дчык m (vadapravódčyk), вадаправо́днік m (vadapravódnik), сантэ́хнік m (santéxnik)
• Bulgarian: водопрово́дчик m (vodoprovódčik)
• Burmese: ရေပိုက်သမား (repuiksa.ma:)
• Catalan: llauner m, lampista (ca) m or f, plomer m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 管子工 (zh) (guǎnzigōng), 鉛管工／铅管工 (zh) (qiānguǎngōng), 水暖工 (zh) (shuǐnuǎngōng)

• Czech: instalatér (cs) m, instalatérka f
• Danish: blikkenslager c
• Dutch: loodgieter (nl) m
• Esperanto: tubisto, plumbisto
• Estonian: torumees, turulukksepp
• Finnish: putkimies (fi) (male); putkiasentaja (neutral)
• French: plombier (fr) m, tuyauteur (fr) m, homme à pipe m (Louisiana)
• Galician: fontaneiro (gl) m
• Georgian: მეწყალსადენე (mec̣q̇alsadene)
• German: Klempner (de) m, Klempnerin (de) f, Installateur (de) m, Spengler (de) m
• Greek: υδραυλικός (el) m (ydravlikós)
• Hebrew: שְׁרַבְרַב (he) m (shravráv)
• Hindi: कसेरा (hi) m (kaserā), नलकार m (nalkār), नलसाज़ m (nalsāz), प्लंबर m (plambar)
• Hungarian: vízvezeték-szerelő (hu), gázszerelő (hu), víz(vezeték)- és gázszerelő, víz-gáz szerelő
• Icelandic: pípari m
• Irish: pluiméir m
• Italian: idraulico (it) m
• Japanese: 配管工 (はいかんこう, haikankō), 鉛管工 (えんかんこう, enkankō) (dated)
• Korean: 배관공(配管工) (ko) (baegwan'gong), 연관공(鉛管工) (yeon'gwan'gong)
• Latin: plumbārius m
• Lithuanian: santechnikas m
• Macedonian: водоводџија f (vodovoddžija), водоинстала́тер m (vodoinstaláter)
• Maltese: plamer
• Maori: kaiaka kōrere, kaiaka paipa
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: rørlegger (no) m

  Nynorsk: røyrleggjar m

• Persian: لوله‌کش (lule-keš)
• Polish: hydraulik (pl) m
• Portuguese: encanador (pt) m
• Romanian: tinichigiu (ro) m, instalator (ro) m
• Russian: водопрово́дчик (ru) m (vodoprovódčik), санте́хник (ru) m (santéxnik)
• Slovak: inštalatér m, inštalatérka f
• Slovene: vodoinštalater m, vodoinštalaterka f, vodovodar m, vodovodarka f
• Spanish: fontanero m (Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua), gásfiter m (Chile), gasfitero m (Ecuador, Peru), plomero (es) m (Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Uruguay), tubero m (Philippines)
• Swedish: rörmokare (sv) c
• Tagalog: tubero (tl)
• Tajik: водопроводчӣ (vodoprovodčī), водопроводсоз (vodoprovodsoz)
• Turkish: tesisatçı (tr)
• Ukrainian: водопрові́дник m (vodoprovídnyk), санте́хнік m (santéxnik)
• Urdu: پلمبر m (plambar), نل کار m (nal kār)
• Uzbek: vodoprovodchi (uz)
• Vietnamese: thợ sữa ống nước
• Volapük: rüdan m or f, hirüdan m, jirüdan f
• Welsh: plymer m

References

• Corpun.com, a specialized website on Corporal Punishments [1]

Anagrams

• replumb

Latin

Verb

plumber

1. first-person singular present passive subjunctive of plumbō