plummet

The story

1. Latin · derived fromplumbum“lead”
2. Old French · derived fromplommet
3. Middle English · inherited fromplommet“ball of lead, plumb of a bob-line”
4. English todayplummet

From Middle English plommet (“ball of lead, plumb of a bob-line”), recorded since 1382, from Old French plommet or plomet, the diminutive of plom, plum (“lead, sounding lead”), from Latin plumbum (“lead”). The verb is first recorded in 1626, originally meaning “to fathom, take soundings", from the noun.

Words from the same roots