Spigot

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David Myer
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Spigot

Postby David Myer » Thu Oct 14, 2021 12:14 am

I like this word for a whole bunch of reasons.
1. It's a strong word.
2. It belongs with all those thingamies like widget and grommet
3. Its meaning has morphed a long way from its origins - spica, a spike

And actually what it is, seems to be debated. Is it a synonym for tap or faucet? Or that part of the tap that fills the hole? Or the part of the tap that opens the valve?

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Slava
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Re: Spigot

Postby Slava » Sun Jul 09, 2023 9:13 am

Courtesy of etymonline:
Spigot and faucet was the name of an old type of tap for a barrel or cask, consisting of a hollow, tapering tube, which was driven at the narrow end into a barrel, and a screw into the tube which regulated the flow of the liquid. Properly, it seems, the spigot was the tube, the faucet the screw, but the senses have merged or reversed over time. OED reports that faucet is now the common word in American English for the whole apparatus.
When I first copied this, the italics were missing. Glad I noticed, as they are important to understanding that those first two nouns are not separate words, but belong together as one concept.
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