entry
faucet
/ˈfɔːsɪt/Valve or tap controlling liquid flow
From O.French fausset (spigot) + Late Latin falsare (to damage).
from Late Latin falsare (see false ). Spigot and faucet was the name of an old type of tap for a barrel or cask,...
from Old French fausset (14c.) "breach, spigot, stopper, peg (of a barrel)," which is of unknown origin; perhaps...
Word Ancestry
from Late Latin falsare (see false ). Spigot and faucet was the name of an old type of tap for a barrel or cask,...
from Old French fausset (14c.) "breach, spigot, stopper, peg (of a barrel)," which is of unknown origin; perhaps...
A faucet began life around a barrel, not a bathroom sink. In medieval French, fausset named the little stopper or peg that let liquid escape from a cask, and English borrowed it by about 1400. The trail may run back to Late Latin falsare, a nasty little verb about damaging or breaking into things — which feels apt for a piece of wood or metal forced into a hole to control a flood of wine or ale. That makes faucet an unexpected cousin of false and falsify, words that also smell faintly of things bent out of shape. And in American English the whole contraption eventually took over the old names spigot and tap, so every time you turn one on, you’re handling a word that once belonged to a barrel’s plug, a tiny intruder keeping a river in check.
The Story
A faucet began life around a barrel, not a bathroom sink. In medieval French, fausset named the little stopper or peg that let liquid escape from a cask, and English borrowed it by about 1400. The trail may run back to Late Latin falsare, a nasty little verb about damaging or breaking into things — which feels apt for a piece of wood or metal forced into a hole to control a flood of wine or ale. That makes faucet an unexpected cousin of false and falsify, words that also smell faintly of things bent out of shape. And in American English the whole contraption eventually took over the old names spigot and tap, so every time you turn one on, you’re handling a word that once belonged to a barrel’s plug, a tiny intruder keeping a river in check.
Kin & Kindred
From 'fausset'·spigot, stopper, barrel plug
Derived Terms
English words from this root
From 'falsare'·to damage, break into; to falsify
Derived Terms
English words from this root