plummet

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To fall very quickly and suddenly

   The plane suddenly plummeted thousands of feet before the pilot regained control.

2. 2
   verb

   To decrease sharply in amount or value

   House prices plummeted during the economic crisis.

3. 3
   noun

   A sudden, sharp fall or decline

   The team's plummet in form cost them the championship.

Simplified etymology

Plummet entered Middle English through Old French and ultimately derives from Latin plumbum “lead.” It first referred to a plumb line; its verb sense “drop rapidly and vertically,” recorded from the 1850s, developed from the earlier action of letting such a weighted line fall.

From Middle English plommet (“ball of lead, plumb of a bob-line”), recorded since 1382, from Old French plommet or plomet, the diminutive of plom, plum (“lead, sounding lead”), from Latin plumbum (“lead”). The verb is first recorded in 1626, originally meaning “to fathom, take soundings", from the noun.

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary