faucet

Faucet enters English from Old French fausset (a peg for piercing a barrel), from fausser (to break, to damage, to falsify), from Late Latin falsare (to falsify), from Latin falsus (false). The connection seems strange — how does 'false' become 'faucet'? The link is the act of breaking: falsare originally meant 'to break' or 'to breach.' A faucet was a peg that breached a barrel, creating an opening for liquid to flow. The break was the function.

In medieval wine and beer production, the fausset was a spigot — a tapered wooden peg driven into a bored hole in a barrel. Pull the peg out, the liquid flows. Push it back in, the flow stops. The word entered English in the fifteenth century, meaning this barrel tap. The meaning expanded in the nineteenth century to include any tap or valve controlling water flow.

In American English, 'faucet' is the standard word for a water tap. In British English, 'tap' is standard, and 'faucet' sounds American. The two words coexist in other English-speaking countries. The difference is a marker of Atlantic English: Americans turn on the faucet, British turn on the tap. Same action, different continents, different words.

The modern kitchen faucet — a single lever controlling hot and cold water through a cartridge valve — was patented by Al Moen in 1947. Moen reportedly was inspired by scalding himself at a two-handle faucet. The one-handle faucet is now universal. The word that started as a barrel peg now names a temperature-controlled, filtered, motion-sensing water delivery system. The barrel breach became a smart home device.