It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for December 15.

Today's word is a plumb spelled APL O M B. A plumb is a noun. It means complete and

confident composure or self-assurance and is a synonym of the word poise. Here's the word used in a

sentence from spin. Themselves a band that likes to push the edge of the technology envelope and who made video a major

part of their performances 30 years ago, you two open sphere with a plumb but

not necessarily full-bore success.

If you do something with a plumb, you do it with composure and self-assurance.

You do it with poise.

This English noun a plumb was borrowed directly from French where it carries the meanings of both composure and perpendicularity.

The French word a plumb comes from the phrase a plumb meaning perpendicularly or literally according to the

plumbet a plumbet being a lead weight that is attached to a line and used to determine vertical alignment. Plum has its roots in the

Latin word plumb boom meaning lead. Source two of such varied English words as Plumet, Plummer, which originally referred to someone who deals with or works in lead,

and the symbol P.B. which designates the element lead on the periodic table. Plumboom is also the source of the

word plunge and therefore plunger. The fact that a plumber is able to use a plunger with more a plumb than most of us is, however, merely coincidence.

With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.

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