What She Said: Loving Local Language

Yesterday I was reading an Associated Press story about the families in Joplin, Missouri, who lost their homes to the tornado, and I came across this perfectly succinct description of their situation:

“Ask 64-year-old William Whittenback where his home is, and he has a quick answer. 'Plum off the map,' the retiree said.”

I knew the term, having grown up in the south and southern midwest, and I was glad the writer chose to preserve this colorful idiom.  However, something didn’t look right, and because I’d never really thought about the origin of this descriptor, I decided to look it up.  What does a piece of fruit have to do with Mr. Whittenback’s apparent meaning?

A check of the dictionary confirmed that AP was confused; the term is plumb, not plum.  Once you spell it correctly, the connection makes sense.

First the definition: Per Wikipedia, plumb is a carpentry term meaning a line which [sic] is exactly vertical, or perpendicular to a level horizontal line.

Merriam-Webster explains the progression to Mr. Whittenback’s statement; as an adverb, plumb is “chiefly dialect: to a complete degree: absolutely."

The origin of plumb as a noun, according to http://www.etymonline.com/, is c.1300, "lead hung on a string to show the vertical line," from O.Fr. plombe, plomme "sounding lead," from L.L. plumba, originally pl. of L. plumbum "lead," the metal, of unknown origin, related to Gk. molybdos "lead" (dial. bolimos), probably from an extinct Mediterranean language, perhaps Iberian. The verb is first recorded late 14c., with sense "to immerse;" meaning "take soundings with a plumb" is first recorded 1560s; figurative sense of "to get to the bottom of" is from 1590s. Plumb-bob is from 1835. Adj. sense of "perpendicular, vertical" is from mid-15c.; the notion of "exact measurement" led to extended sense of "completely, downright" (1748), sometimes spelled plump or plunk.

OK, now that we have that cleared up!

In the course of my research, I found a lovely usage example in a dictionary of idioms,  which takes a more literal route back to the carpentry reference (you’ll understand this one if you’ve ever used a carpenter’s level).

Fig. giddy; crazy. She is acting about half a bubble off plumb.

Finally, I came across Ron Collins’ Southern Dialect Converter, which unfortunately reinforces the spelling error in one reference, while spelling the word correctly in others:

• Plum -- Completely
• Plum Nelly -- Nearly
• Plumb -- Completely: "I was Plumb tuckered-out when I got home"
• Plumb Tuckered -- Tired or "Wore Out"
• Give Out -- Tired, Exhausted -- "I'm Plumb Give Out"

As for me, I'm not "give out" yet. I love thinking about words and local idiom -- does that make me a "locavox?"