Just like with any profession, there are verbal shortcuts and names to address various situations and items. In plumbing, the terminology can easily be one of the more interesting ones where groups of well-experienced plumbers happen to find exact words where the regular dictionary does not apply. Over time, some jargon has faded but we are here to revive it!
See for yourself the terms you will come across in your lifetime and actually know what they mean.
Classic Plumbing Jargon
Thunderbox — A slang term for an old-fashioned outdoor toilet, typically consisting of a simple wooden box with a hole in the top.
Water Closet — An archaic term for a toilet, often used in older plumbing contexts or in formal settings.
Lead Joint — Refers to a method of joining pipes using molten lead, which was common in older plumbing systems but is now largely obsolete due to health concerns.
Brass Monkey — Not directly related to plumbing, but in nautical terms, it refers to a brass frame used to hold cannonballs on ships. However, the phrase “cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey” has been associated with extremely cold weather.
Earth Closet — A type of early toilet that used a bucket of earth or ash to cover waste, often found in rural areas before modern plumbing.
S-trap — A type of trap used in plumbing to prevent sewer gases from entering buildings, less common now due to its tendency to siphon water from the trap.
Closet Auger — A specialised tool used for clearing clogs in toilets, typically with a long, flexible shaft and a curved end.
Plumber’s Furnace — An old term for a potbelly stove, often used in workshops or old plumbing supply stores.
Caulk — In plumbing, this refers to sealing material used to make joints watertight, but in older times, it could refer to any type of sealing compound or even the act of sealing itself.
Water Hammer — This term is still used today to describe the banging noise in pipes caused by sudden pressure changes, but its origins date back to older plumbing systems with less sophisticated pressure regulation.
Petcock — A small valve used to drain liquid from a container, often found in older plumbing fixtures or machinery.
Gib — A wedge-shaped piece used to secure or adjust parts in plumbing systems, particularly in older pipe fittings.
Night Soil — A polite term for human waste collected from cesspits or outdoor toilets, once common before the widespread adoption of indoor plumbing.
Bonus Terms (NSFW)
Here are some bonus terms used everyday that might raise a few eyebrows outside the trade:
Ballcock — In plumbing, it’s a valve used to control the flow of water into a tank.
Nipple — In plumbing, it’s a short piece of pipe with threads at each end, used to connect other fittings.
Cock — In plumbing, it’s a type of valve.
Nuts — In plumbing, these are threaded fasteners used to secure pipes and fittings.
Insertion Depth — In plumbing, this refers to how far a pipe or fitting needs to be inserted into another to ensure a secure connection.
Butt Joint — In plumbing, it’s a joint where two pipes or fittings are connected end-to-end.
Ball Valve — In plumbing, it’s a valve that uses a ball to control the flow of water.
We hope you may not be so confused after hearing some of the plumbing jargon used in the last century.
