Get the PLUMB out

Our word plumb comes from the Latin word plumbum which means lead, for the lead weight people put on the end of a plumb line that is used to establish a true vertical.

I found something intriguing when I googled PLUMB. Hubby is an architect and carpenter who often uses the expression “plumb, level and square”, so I already knew about plumb lines on land.

I also knew that “plumb the depths” meant “to carefully examine something in order to understand or explain it.” But I didn’t realize it came from the same activity that led Samuel Clemens to choose his pen name.

The lead weight at the bottom of a water plumb line is hollow, so the “leadsman” who “heaves the lead” and “sings the mark” can also pull up a sample of the bottom. In shallow, changing conditions like those Mississippi River steamboats must contend with, both the depth and the bottom material (mud, sand, rock) can present serious hazards.

The lines are marked with different colors, so the water depth can be easily read. In the days of Mark Twain, the “mark” (depth) was literally sung by the leadsman so the pilot was kept aware of potentially dangerous conditions. As a young man, Samuel Clemens worked as a Mississippi steamboat pilot. His pen name, Mark Twain, was the favorite mark for a pilot to hear, because it meant the boat had 12 feet of water under it and was therefore safe.

Since plumb means “exactly vertical”, plumb also gets used to mean things like “absolutely” or “exactly” as in:

• “He’s plumb crazy.”
• “I fell plumb in the middle of the puddle.”
• “I’m plumb worn out.”

One can also refer to another person as being “out of plumb” or “off plumb” – i.e., a tad whacked, a few fries short of a Happy Meal, plumb crazy.

Then there are the verb forms: plumb, plumbed, plumbing, plumbs. Obviously, they are the action words for all of the above. But to plumb also means to weight with lead and to seal with lead.  Why would you want to seal anything with lead? I’m guessing you should ask a plumber. And speaking of plumbers, to plumb also means to to work as a plumber.

I’m thinking maybe the plumb/plumbing/plumber connection is because pipes were originally made of lead. Did you know that lead is very toxic and that one of the names for lead poisoning is “plumbism”?

Lead poisoning can cause abnormal behavior, including confusion, irritability, hyperactivity and distractibility.

Isn’t it funny-peculiar that the English word plumb originally came from the Latin word for lead, because people used a lead weight on a string to find the vertical … and then, because verticality suggests balanced, upright and correct, being off plumb came mean something that is caused by lead poisoning?