faucet

English

A sink faucet

Alternative forms

Alternative forms

• (Middle English–15th century):
  • faucet
  • faucett
  • fawcett
• (16th century):
  • faucet
  • faucett
  • fawcet
  • fawcett
  • fawset
• (17th century):
  • fasset
  • faucet
  • faucete
  • faulsed
  • faulset
  • fauset
• (18th century):
  • faucet
  • faucit
  • fausset
  • fosset
• (19th century):
  • faucet
  • forset
  • fosset
• (20th century–present):
  • faucet

Etymology

From Middle English faucet, fawcett, from Old French fausset, of uncertain origin:

• Possibly from Late Latin falsāre (“to falsify”) or from a diminutive of Latin faux, faucēs (“throat”).
• Alternatively, from Old Norse foss, fors (“waterfall”), thus, cognate with English force, foss.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: fôʹsĭt, IPA^(key): /ˈfɔːsɪt/
• Rhymes: -ɔːsɪt
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔsɪt/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈfɑsɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: Fawcett

Noun

faucet (plural faucets)

1. (Canada, US) An exposed plumbing fitting; a tap or spigot; a regulator for controlling the flow of a liquid from a reservoir.

   Synonyms: tap, spigot

   The rain ceased as if a faucet had been turned off.

   • 2020, Brandon Taylor, Real Life, Daunt Books Originals, page 80:

     Wallace beats his palm against the reluctant handle of the faucet until it gives way, and the water comes out too hard, too fast.

2. (game development) One or several systems that inject currency into the game's economy, thus controlling or preventing inflation

   Antonym: sink

3. A tapered tube, designed to be forced into a matching hole in a barrel, with the outer end holding a plug cock for decanting liquid from the barrel.
   • 1585, Adrianus Junius, John Higgins, The Nomenclator, Or Remembrancer of Adrianus Iunius Physician ... VVritten ... in Latine, Greeke, French and Other Forrein Tongues : and Now in English by J. Higins... VVith ... a Dictional Index, London: Ralph Newberie and Henrie Denham, sourced from British Library, via Google Books, page 238:

     The pipe or faucet or rather fast set, so called, because it is set fast in.

Hypernyms

• valve

Derived terms

• Bitcoin faucet
• faucet aerator
• faucetless
• faucetlike
• faucetry
• health faucet

Translations

an exposed plumbing fitting; a tap or spigot; a regulator for controlling the flow of a liquid from a reservoir — see also tap,‎ spigot

• Albanian: rubinet m
• Arabic: حَنَفِيَّة f (ḥanafiyya), صُنْبُور m (ṣunbūr)

  Gulf Arabic: حنفية (ḥanafīya)

  Hijazi Arabic: بَزبوز m (bazbūz)

  Iraqi Arabic: حَنَفِيَّة f (ḥanafīyya)

  Moroccan Arabic: بزبوز m (bazbūz), روبيني m (rūbīni)

• Aramaic:

  Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܒܵܢܒܘܼܠܵܐ m (bānbulā), ܦܸܬܝܘܿܢ (pityon)

• Armenian: ծորակ (hy) (corak)
• Asturian: cañu (ast) m, caniya (ast) f
• Azerbaijani: kran, şir (az) (traditional, in shape of lion), qırna
• Basque: txorrota
• Belarusian: кран m (kran)
• Bengali: কল (bn) (kol)
• Bulgarian: чешма́ (bg) f (češmá), кран (bg) m (kran)
• Burmese: ဘုံပိုင် (my) (bhumpuing)
• Catalan: aixeta (ca) f, canella (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 水龍頭 / 水龙头 (seoi² lung⁴ tau⁴)

  Hokkien: 水道頭 / 水道头 (zh-min-nan) (chúi-tō-thâu), 水拵頭 / 水拵头 (chúi-chūn-thâu)

  Mandarin: 水龍頭 / 水龙头 (zh) (shuǐlóngtóu), 龍頭 / 龙头 (zh) (lóngtóu)

• Czech: kohout (cs) m, kohoutek (cs) m, pípa (cs) f
• Danish: vandhane (da) c
• Dutch: kraan (nl) f, tap (nl) m
• Esperanto: krano (eo)
• Estonian: kraan
• Finnish: hana (fi), vesihana (fi)
• French: champlure (fr) f (Canada), robinet (fr) m
• Galician: billa (gl) f
• Georgian: კრანი (ḳrani) (informal, proscribed), ონკანი (onḳani)
• German: Armatur (de) f, Auslaufventil n (technical), Hahn (de) m, Kran (de) m, Mischbatterie (de) f, Spund (de) m, Zapfen (de) m, Wasserhahn (de) m,
• Greek: βρύση (el) (vrýsi)
• Gujarati: નળ m (naḷ)
• Hebrew: בֶּרֶז (he) m (bérez)
• Hindi: नल (hi) m (nal), टोंटी f (ṭõṭī)
• Hungarian: csap (hu), csaptelep (hu), vízcsap (hu)
• Icelandic: hani (is) m, krani m
• Indonesian: keran (id)
• Ingrian: naka
• Irish: buacaire m, sconna m
• Italian: rubinetto (it) m, spina (it) f
• Japanese: 蛇口 (ja) (じゃぐち, jaguchi)
• Kazakh: кран (kran)
• Khmer: ចំពួយ (km) (cɑmpuəy), ក្បាលម៉ាស៊ីនទឹក (kbaal maasiin tɨk)
• Korean: 수도꼭지 (ko) (sudokkokji)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: شێرە (şêre)

  Northern Kurdish: henef (ku) f, henîfe (ku) f, henefî (ku) f, mislik (ku) f, zembere (ku) f

• Kyrgyz: кран (kran)
• Lao: ກ໊ອກ (kǭk), ກ໊ອກນ້ຳ (kǭk nam)
• Latvian: krāns m
• Lithuanian: čiaupas m
• Macedonian: чешма (mk) f (češma), славина f (slavina)
• Malay: kepala paip

  Brunei Malay: paip

• Malayalam: ടാപ്പ് (ml) (ṭāppŭ)
• Maltese: vit
• Māori: kōrere, kōrere wai, putawai
• Marathi: नळ (mr) m (naḷ), तोटी f (toṭī)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: крант (mn) (krant), усны цорго (usny corgo)

• Norman: coq m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kran (no) m

• Pannonian Rusyn: чоп m (čop)
• Pashto: شيردان (ps) m (širdān)
• Persian:

  Dari: شیر (fa) (šēr)

  Iranian Persian: شیر (fa) (šir)

• Plautdietsch: Kron m
• Polish: bateria (pl) f, kran (pl) m, kurek (pl) m, zawór (pl) m
• Portuguese: bica (pt) f, torneira (pt) f
• Punjabi:

  Gurmukhi: ਟੂਟੀ f (ṭūṭī)

  Shahmukhi: ٹُوٹِی f (ṭūṭī)

• Romanian: robinet (ro) n or m
• Russian: кран (ru) m (kran), крант (ru) m (krant) (obsolete)
• Samoan: paipa
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: сла̀вина f

  Latin: slàvina (sh) f

• Sinhalese: කරාම (karāma)
• Slovak: kohútik
• Slovene: pipa (sl) f
• Spanish: canilla (es) f (Argentina, Northern Central Spain, Paraguay, Uruguay), caño (es) m (Peru), grifo (es) m, llave (es) f (Bolivia, Central America, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Venezuela), paja (es) f (Nicaragua), pluma (es) f (Colombian Atlantic Coast), bitoque m
• Swahili: mfereji (sw), bilula (sw) class n
• Swedish: kran (sv) c
• Tagalog: gripo (tl)
• Tajik: кран (kran)
• Tamil: குழாய் (ta) (kuḻāy)
• Tetum: torneira
• Thai: ก๊อกน้ำ (gɔ́k-náam), ก๊อก (th) (gɔ́k)
• Tibetan: ཁ་གཅུས (kha gcus)
• Tongan: tepi
• Turkish: musluk (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: موصلق (musluk)

• Turkmen: kran
• Ukrainian: кран m (kran)
• Ulithian: kiyel chaael
• Urdu: نَل m (nal)
• Uyghur: كران (kran), ۋودوپروۋود جۈمىكى (wodoprowod jümiki)
• Uzbek: kran (uz)
• Vietnamese: vòi (vi), rô-bi-nê
• Walloon: cråne (wa)
• Welsh: dwsel m, tap (cy) m

Further reading

• “faucet”, in Merriam-Webster.com Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “faucet, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
• “faucet”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• fucate

Middle English

Alternative forms

• fawcett

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French fausset, perhaps from Latin faux (“throat”).

Noun

faucet

1. faucet

Descendants

• English: faucet