spigot

English

Alternative forms

• spicket

Etymology

From Middle English spigot (“wooden stopper”). Probably ultimately from Latin spīca via Old Occitan espiga and one or more dialects of Middle French [Term?].

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈspɪ.ɡət/, /ˈspɪ.kət/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Homophone: spicket (occasionally)
• Rhymes: -ɪɡət, -ɪkɪt

Noun

spigot (plural spigots)

1. A pin or peg used to stop the vent in a cask.
2. The plug of a faucet, tap or cock.
3. (US, especially Appalachia) A water tap: a faucet or sillcock.
   • 1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page 323:

     I went to the sink and turned the spigot, feeling the cold rush of water upon my hand.

Derived terms

• knight of the spigot
• lick-spigot
• spigot algorithm

 

Translations

a pin or peg used to stop the vent in a cask

• Bulgarian: чеп (bg) m (čep), канелка (bg) f (kanelka)
• Catalan: tap (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 塞子 (zh) (sāizi)

• Finnish: tappi (fi)
• Galician: billa (gl) f, espita (gl) f, espicho m
• Middle English: spigot
• Norwegian: svikk m
• Russian: про́бка (ru) f (próbka), заты́чка (ru) f (zatýčka)
• Serbo-Croatian: slavina (sh), pipa (sh)

the plug of a faucet or cock

• Catalan: aixeta (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 塞子 (zh) (sāizi)

• Finnish: tulppa (fi)
• German: Zapfhahn (de) m
• Norwegian: tapp m, propp m
• Plautdietsch: Kron m
• Russian: кран (ru) m (kran)
• Serbo-Croatian: slavina (sh) f
• Spanish: llave (es) f, (faucet) grifo (es) m, (cock) válvula (es) f, espita (es) f

faucet — see tap

Verb

spigot (third-person singular simple present spigots, present participle spigoting or spigotting, simple past and past participle spigoted or spigotted)

1. (transitive) To block with a spigot.
   • 2002, Phoenix Project: Environmental Impact Statement, pages 2–31:

     Once a beach has been formed, spigoting would focus on directing the reclaim water pool toward the reclaim barge pumps.

2. (transitive) To insert (a spigot).
   • 1956, The Automobile Engineer, volume 46, page 118:

     Location of the cylinders is, of course, effected by spigoting their lower ends into the holes in the crankcase. Similarly, the cylinder heads are located by spigoting the upper ends of the cylinders into them.

Middle English

Alternative forms

• spegot, spygott, spygot, spygote, spyket, spygotte, speget, spykkett, spygett

Etymology

From dialectal Middle French espigeot.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈspiɡɔt/, /ˈspiɡət/

Noun

spigot (plural spigottes)

1. wooden stopper; wooden spigot

Descendants

• English: spigot, spicket

References

• “spigot, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.