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a.

Comes from the Latin word ‘plumbum’ which means ‘lead’.

b.

The Romans used lead to make pipes in their water supply and aqueducts.

c.

The problem is that lead is highly poisonous!

d.

Some scholars think that the reason why the Roman Empire fell is because of lead poisoning!

e.

Lead was also used as a sweetener in wine and Beethoven, who was a heavy wine drinker, is sometimes believed to have died from wine poisoning.

Hi, everyone. And welcome back to one of your favorite segments【词源考古研究所】, It Means What?

Hi, 安澜.

Hi, Lulu. Hi, everyone.

So what are we gonna talk about today?

First I wanna ask you a question

okay

what would you do if you clogged your toilet?

Clogged my toilet? What are you talking about? I never clog my toilet. I'm a lady.

Really?

Okay. If I accidentally clog my toilet, I would use a plunger. I would use any method to try to unclog it.

But what if you can't?

I'll call someone, I'll call a guy. Are we talking about plumber today就是水管管道工?

So we're gonna talk about the word. Plumber or plumbing

Plumbing is a word... I would assume the origin of this word has something to do with pipes because你说水管，我们说上下水管道工。

No, it comes from Latin “plumbum”, means lead.

Lead铅, 这个词在它作为金属的时候, 它读let在作为引导的时候它读lead. Here is lead, was it because the original pipes, water pipes they were made of lead?

Exactly. So the Romans were famous for their plumbing. They were famous for their water supplies and their aqueducts.

Yes, the aqueducts are those things that you use to transport water.

And the Romans use lead to make the pipes.

Isn't that a bit dangerous?

Yes, it is. The problem is that lead is highly poisonous,

对, 铅就是特别有毒的.

Yes. The problem is that nobody realized that lead was that dangerous. So some scholars actually think the reason why the Roman empire fell is because of lead poisoning.

I guess a lot of these things that we now know to be highly dangerous, they were found out because people died from it, (exactly) massive amount of people died from it.

So some people think that if you read Roman history, there's lots of people who are a little bit crazy or a little bit of eccentric or do very weird things. Some people have suggested that actually that could have been partly lead poisoning because lead poisoning does actually make you slightly erratic. It does affect your nervous system.

It's heavy metal poisoning, exactly. It's like in Chinese history there's a lot of because of all the 炼丹, there's a lot of mercury poisoning.

Exactly every second Chinese emperor seems to have died of mercury poisoning.

I guess this is very typical or very normal in history. And talking about lead poisoning though, there was also the case of remember they were using all of these cosmetics, makeup that was also containing a lot of lead.

A lot of cosmetics used to use things like arsenic.

Wow, the ones that they used to paint their face super pale,that contained a lot of poisonous materials.

Exactly.

So arsenic if you don't know what it is, it's incredibly poisonous.

Arsenic is used in rat poison.

Yes.

Okay, but apart from that, I think lead was also used in some sort of food or drinks, right?

Lead was also used as a sweetener in wine.

Wow, that must have killed a lot of people.

Well, apparently it killed Beethoven.

Is that proven or was that just a myth?

It’s sometimes believed no one's 100% sure.

Now Beethoven really enjoyed wine. He was a heavy wine drinker, so he might have died of alcoholism or he might have died of the poisoning, all of the lead that was in the wine that he was drinking.

Drinking all that wine, you didn't die of alcohol poisoning, you died of lead poisoning?

Pretty much.

Okay. I really never knew that plumber and plumbing was originally from the word “lead”, I thought it was definitely gonna be something about pipes.

Think about it this way. Don't you remember your science classes at school?

I don't.

Lead on the periodic table is Pb.

Oh, I never realized that, I guess I wasn't paying attention to my chemistry classes.

Apparently not.

That's why I never really noticed that.

Because it uses the Latin word. So it's Pb it's not Ld.

Plumbum

Plumbum. I like how it sounds.

So does that mean like the Mario brothers, they were just, I don't know, dealing with lead all day?

That would explain how they drive.

We’re terrible joke makers.

Exactly.

I don't even know how to ask questions in this. I guess the thing is we can talk about plumbers. There's always this thing about old plumber, although they are seen as more like, I don't know like for lack of a better word blue collar, like handyman, but they actually earn very good living in the west. Is that true in the UK?

That is absolutely true. Because plumbers, everybody at one time or another needs a plumber, not many people become plumbers, so they can charge whatever they want.

So you have some plumbers that get more than teachers or doctors because particularly with the call out fees, because let's face it, if your toilet is not working or your pipe has burst, then you're gonna call a plumber out immediately, no matter whatever they say, whatever amount of money they ask for, you are going to pay it.

That is true. Have you ever called a plumber or your family ever called a plumber in the UK?

No, I've never clog my toilet. I'm a gentleman

Payback time, right?

Absolutely.

Despite the high salary or despite the high income they get, do people still have this sort of, I don't know, like stigma or prejudice against that “Don't be a plumber. You should be a doctor, a teacher, someone who's got more respect”?

There is that and there's also the sort of joke about plumber’s bums.

Plumber’s bums.

Oh, when they bent down their trousers fall...You can see their part of their butt.

They have like a butt cleavage. I don't know what we're talking about. We should

stop there, exactly!

But that is a thing.

That is a thing. And that's like a so common stereotype. I promise

I actually called a plumber when I was living in England and I saw that and I am...

I’m so sorry.

All I was thinking was so the urban myth was true

absolutely.

And then it wasn't a pretty side.

No.

All right. So I guess the question for you guys is have you ever called a plumber when something's wrong with your pipes? If you have any other special request for particular words or phrases you want us to talk about in this segment, let us know as well. And thank you, 安澜for coming to the show.

Thanks, Lulu, thanks everyone.

We'll see you next time.

Bye bye.