Hydraulic Plumbers

A lot of the words in Italian are similar to words in Spanish, French or other Romance languages I know, but quite often I come across a word that doesn’t seem familiar at all. For example, idraulico (plumber) – a bit different from plombier in French, plomero in Spanish.

Idraulico Livorno

Idraulico [iˈdraw.li.ko] means plumber, plumbing or hydraulic in Italian. It comes from Latin hydraulicus, from Ancient Greek ὑδραυλικός (hudraulikós – of a water organ), from ὕδραυλις (húdraulis – water organ), from ὕδωρ (húdōr – water) and‎ αὐλός (aulós – pipe) [source].

Words from the same roots include hydraulic, hydrate and hydrofoil in English, hydraulique (hydraulic) in French, and υδραυλικός (ydravlikós – plumber, hydraulic engineer, hydraulic) in Greek, hydraulik (plumber) in Polish [source].

The French word plombier (plumber, plumbing), the Spanish word plomero (plumber, plumbing), and the English words plumber and plumbing, all come from Latin plumbārius (plumber, of or pertaining to lead), from plumbum (lead [metal], pipe of lead), possibly from Ancient Greek μόλυβδος (mólubdos – lead), or from Proto-Celtic *ɸloudom (lead) [source].

Related words from the same roots include piombo (lead, grey, bullet), piombino ([lead] seal, sinker [weight], plummet) in Italian, plomb (lead [metal], fuse, sinker [fishing weight]) in French, Plombe (seal, lead seal [dental] filling) in German, and plwm (lead, leaden) in Welsh [source].

The Spanish word plomero is used for plumber in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Uruguay. Other Spanish words for plumber include: fontanero in Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, gásfiter in Chile, gasfitero in Ecuador and Peru, and tubero in the Philippines [source].

Are there interesting words for plumber in other languages?

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4 thoughts on “Hydraulic Plumbers

  1. The often-used but colloquial Finnish word putkimies is literally ‘pipe man’, so it is not gender-neutral. The formal term is LVI-asentaja, where LVI refers to building services, and asentaja means ‘mechanic’. You can also use putkiasentaja ‘pipe mechanic’ which is gender-neutral.

    The abbreviation LVI comes from the words lämpö, vesi, ilmastointi, or heating, water and air conditioning.

  2. In Swedish, we say ‘rörmokare’. ‘Rör’ means ‘pipe’, but I am actually not entirely sure
    of what ‘-mokare’ really means. It might come from ‘makare’, literally ‘maker’,
    from an old word for ‘creator’ or ‘producer’ (the same word part is used in ‘urmakare’,
    literally ‘watch maker’, for one who builds clocks and watches,
    and ‘skomakare’ for one who makes shoes).

  3. And in Catalan “fontanero”- literally someone who deals with fountains! While living in Catalonia and speaking Castilian (Spanish)- I always assumed “fontanero” was the actual Spanish word. I believe the word is one of several that that Spanish using Catalans often assume to be Spanish.

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