plumb: [13] Plumb comes via Old French *plombe from Latin plumbum ‘lead’, a word of uncertain origin. Of its modern English uses, the verbal ‘sound the depths’ comes from the use of a line weighted with lead (a plumb line) to measure the depth of water and the adverbial ‘exactly’ from the use of a similar line to determine verticality. Related words in English include aplomb; plumber [14] (originally simply a ‘worker in lead’, but eventually, since water pipes were once made of lead, a ‘pipe-layer’); plummet [14] (a diminutive form coined in Old French); and plunge [14] (from the Vulgar Latin derivative *plumbicāre ‘sound with a plumb’). => aplomb, plumber, plummet, plunge
plumb (n.)
"lead hung on a string to show the vertical line," early 14c., from Old French *plombe, plomee "sounding lead," and directly from Late Latin *plumba, originally plural of Latin plumbum "lead (the metal), lead ball; pipe; pencil," a word of unknown origin, related to Greek molybdos "lead" (dialectal bolimos) and perhaps from an extinct Mediterranean language, perhaps Iberian.
plumb (v.)
early 15c., "to sink" (like lead), from plumb (n.). Meaning "take soundings with a plumb" is first recorded 1560s; figurative sense of "to get to the bottom of" is from 1590s. Related: Plumbed; plumbing.
plumb (adj.)
"perpendicular, vertical," mid-15c., from plumb (n.). The notion of "exact measurement" led to extended sense of "completely, downright" (1748), sometimes spelled plump, plum, or plunk.
实用例句
1. The hotel is set plumb in the middle of the high street.
宾馆正好坐落在商街的中段。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Please come and plumb in my new central heating system.
请来帮我接通新的中央供暖系统的水管。
来自柯林斯例句
3. She learned to wire and plumb the house herself.
她学会了自己给房子拉接电线、敷设水管。
来自柯林斯例句
4. She never abandoned her attempts to plumb my innermost emotions.
她从未放弃过探究我内心深处情感的尝试。
来自柯林斯例句
5. They frequently plumb the depths of loneliness, humiliation and despair.
