Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- any device for controlling the flow of liquid from a pipe or the like by opening or closing an orifice; tap; cock.
noun
- a tap fitted to a barrel
- US and Canadian a valve by which a fluid flow from a pipe can be controlled by opening and closing an orificeAlso called (in Britain and certain other countries): tap
c.1400, from Old French fausset (14c.) “breach, spigot, stopper, peg (of a barrel),” of unknown origin; perhaps diminutive of Latin faux, fauces “upper part of the throat, pharynx, gullet.” Barnhart and others suggest the Old French word is from fausser “to damage, break into,” from Late Latin falsare (see false).
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.