Career Advice

I was pleasantly surprised recently when I called out a plumber and a lady turned up. I was even more impressed that she knew the history of the word plumber. It derives from the Latin for 'lead', plumbum, because at one time pipes were made of lead. But around the time of Chaucer, when the word first appeared, a plumber was a person who worked with lead for other purposes as well, including roofs and window seals.

Apparently more women are taking up plumbing as a trade but my daughter wasn't swayed from her ambition to be a vet. Coincidentally this profession's name also evolved from its original, slightly different, function. It comes from the Latin veterinum meaning 'beast of burden' because, in the days of ancient Rome, only working animals were considered worth treating medically.

Out of interest, the verb to vet as in 'to examine something carefully', comes from the same roots. It was first used as a verb in the 19th century, specifically when a veterinarian was examining a horse before a race. In 1904, Rudyard Kipling was the first person to record the verb without any reference to animals.