What is the difference between a spigot and a faucet?
In my last Thankful Sunday post, I said I was thankful for the cold water that came out of the faucet at the house I was visiting. Well, that's what I said, but not the first time I wrote it. The first time, I said that I was thankful for the cold water that came out of the spigot. I wasn't sure what to say, but I was tired and just chose one. Now that I have a little time, I thought I would figure out what was what.
And once again, I'm confused because they are synonyms of each other. Both spigot and faucet refer to a tap (another synonym) or a valve that controls the flow of liquid into something. You can have a tap in anything from a cask to a water pipe. I never thought about it, but that is where the phrase "tap water" comes from that refers to water coming straight from the faucet/spigot/tap.
However, there are some US regional variations in usage. In the south, spigot is more commonly used while faucet is more commonly used in the north. Also, some use spigot to mean a tap outside and one that is more utilitarian while faucet is used for a tap inside that is fancier.
So there you have it. Use either one you want and you will be okay. After all of this talk about water, I'm thirsty. I'm going to have a drink of tap water from the faucet after I wash my hands from the spigot in the bathroom. :)
What word do you use, and do you use different words for a tap in different situations?
Want to know more?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tap_%28valve%29
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/faucet
My family always used...faucet for inside the house and spigot for the outside. But we would also refer to the water as "tap water" We are from central NY. :-)
ReplyDeleteUntil I looked into this, I never realized that people used different words depending upon whether the tap was outside or inside. Maybe that's because the house I grew up in didn't have an outside tap and I just never paid attention.
DeleteKran (that's the Russian version :)
ReplyDeleteA good and simple word--I like it!
DeleteMy dad always called the faucet outside, a spigot, and the ones inside, faucets.
ReplyDeleteIs there a difference between S. Cal and Washington and has that influenced what you say? I pick up a bit of language each place I live and sometimes can't remember which area uses what.
DeleteI don't know if this was just my "circle" or typical of our area, but we tended to call things by their trade/brand names. Such as, if I wanted a fizzy drink, I'd say I wanted to get a coke, whether it was lemon-lime, root beer or cola (obviously except when actually buying a drink). Here, in WA the common word/phrase seems to be soda or soft drink. My friends in college here, would say tissue, but my circle in Calif seemed to always call them kleenex.
DeleteBut I think my language now, is influenced more by what I read, both in books and online, and so my vocabulary is broader than it was when I was younger , reflecting greater regional variations.
What do you call a soft drink, tissue or submarine sandwich?
OK... I had to go take the quiz. I took it three different times - sometimes I wasn't sure which answer to give, plus it seemed to give me different questions each time. Anyhow, the first time it said I was from Kansas, the second time Arizona, and finally the third time it pegged me as from Denver. Very interesting...
DeleteMy daughters and I are having fun doing this quiz. And it had me dead-on, from the neighboring town where I grew up in So. Cal., and from Seattle and Portland, OR (most of the kids I went to university with were from either Seattle or Portland, I assume their speaking influenced my own).
DeleteI took the quiz through a link on aplacetoreside.blogspot.com and thought it was fun--and accurate! It had 3 localities for me--Grand Rapids, MI (1/2 hour from where I currently live), Detroit, MI (1 hour from where I grew up) and Toledo, OH (2 hours from where I grew up).
DeleteFizzy drinks here are pop! Submarine sandwiches are subs, and tissues are Kleenex (although my kids have been taught in school to call them tissues). We typically use faucet, although I think "spigot" falls into the outside terminology for us as well. I like to tease my husband for saying "seerup" for syrup ("sir-rup" in my neck of the woods)--he grew up in Illinois. There is something fascinating in regional pronunciations, isn't there? Or are we all geeks who have found each other online ...
My vote is that we're all word-geeks, huddled together in our own tiny corner of the web-iverse. Interesting to note, when the quiz asked what you call a fizzy drink, "coke" was one of the answers. So, there are others like me who have always called soda pop "coke", no matter the flavor. Can't wait till my hubby learns this. I've been teased relentlessly for 27 years over my use of the word "coke" referring to any soft drink.
DeleteI think you're right that reading influences what we call things, but there are several things in my reading vocabulary that aren't in my speaking vocabulary. It's a very complicated subject.
DeleteAs for what I call a fizzy drink, I call them sodas. However, I grew up calling them pop as my mother still does. I call a submarine sandwich as sub, but when I lived in New Orleans, I called them Po'Boys. My son likes to call them Heroes in honor of Dagwood Bumstead. I call tissues mostly Kleenex unless I think about it. It wasn't until I was an adult that someone pointed out to me that Kleenex was a brand name.
Here's a link to a quiz that's been making the rounds that asks you a lot of questions about what you call things, that puts your answers in the context of the region that you are most like. It's pretty interesting.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?r=801020ns0404006010002040010201008081010j00020j0100&_r=0
Kris, I first took the quiz from A Place to Reside (http://aplacetoreside.blogspot.com/) also, but have seen it several times on Facebook. Do you know Marilyn, at a Place to Reside?
DeleteI think I found Marilyn via you! She has a nice, restful style--I could do with more peacefulness in my life. :)
DeleteWhen I started to blog, I wanted my blog to have the same feel as hers. I have evolved into my own style, but I am still inspired by her.
DeleteI think I'm in the "faucet=inside, spigot=outside" camp too. I wonder which is more common in places like England and Australia.
ReplyDeleteIt always puzzles me when there are different words for the same thing - I'm sort of a sucker for word etymology so here's what a bit of searching yielded...
Faucet comes from Provencal (basically old French) "falsar" meaning to bore (I assume that's to bore as in to bore a hole in a barrel holding a liquid)
Spigot comes from the Latin "spica" meaning an ear of grain (because things like corn cobs were used as a stopper for liquids stored in barrels)
Tap comes from the old German "zapfen" meaning a tapering cylindrical peg - presumable one used as a stopper in a barrel.
Here's another interesting piece of the puzzle: "Spigot and faucet was the name of an old type of tap for a barrel or cask, consisting of a hollow, tapering tube, which was driven at the narrow end into a barrel, and a screw into the tube which regulated the flow of the liquid. Properly, it seems, the spigot was the tube, the faucet the screw, but the senses have merged or reversed over time. Faucet is now the common word in American English for the whole apparatus."
So that's interesting - the words all originate from things having to do with holes and stoppers, which makes sense but I never would have guessed it!
Thanks for the word etymology, I'm interested in it also. I think your research shows what we already know--American English is really a mish-mash of a lot of different languages.
DeleteAs for what they say in England and Australia, from what I read, tap is the preferred word. However, we should let some people from there weigh in.
Blogger doesn't do comment threads very well and I have just messed the order up trying to fix some typos in one of my comments.
ReplyDeleteI took the quiz a couple of times and like Cat, I found different questions. However, It basically registered me in three southern cites that I have never lived in based on the word "crawdad"
However, it did show that I have lived over much of the south.
I call them "taps".. haha! That's a Canadian for ya! ;)
ReplyDeleteInteresting differences.
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DeleteI knew they were synonyms.We always used faucet. I remember my mom saying to use "tap water" for certain things when I was a child and I knew what it meant. Interesting!
ReplyDeleteI thought the tap part of it was the most interesting.
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ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that the quiz could accurately place you in a specific city, based on your answers. FaucetMeaning
ReplyDelete