From: Tavi
Message: 69756
Date: 2012-06-04
>As many other Germanic words with initial p-, 'plug' is possibly a NWB loanword corresponding to native 'block':
> How far do plug words go in Germanic?
> I found this on line but . . .
> plug (v.)
> "close tightly (a hole), fill," 1620s, from plug (n.). Meaning "work energetically at" is c.1865. Sense of "popularize by repetition" is from 1906. Slang sense "put a bullet into" is recorded from 1870. Related: Plugged; plugging.
> plug (n.)
> 1620s, originally a seamen's term, probably from Du. plug, from M.Du. plugge "bung, stopper," related to Norw. plugg, Dan. pløg, M.L.G. pluck, Ger.pflock; ultimate origin uncertain. Sense of "wad or stick of tobacco" is attested from 1728. Electrical sense is from 1883; meaning "sparking device in an internal combustion engine" is from 1886. Meaning "advertisement" first recorded 1902, American English, perhaps from verb sense "work energetically at" (c.1865).
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