Having grown up in Oregon and Guam, and only ever having heard ‘Fire Hydrant’ used, I had to look up the definition of ‘fireplug’ after the recent column on dalmations, as it was not immediately evident from context.
I have been asking co-workers and friends, all of whom are just as certain that fireplug is not a term that they have ever heard used. Niether for the hydrant, nor for the seemingly very offensive way to describe a woman’s body. So my thought is it must be regional.
A quick search of old columns netted Cecil mention fireplug in New Hampshire, and also a question asked by someone from baltimore. A quick smdb search got me posts from Rochester, Arkansas, and LA. Either I am a minority in a bubble, or these people are travelers from the same general region (I was guessing New England before the AK and CA results).
Grew up in Texas. Fireplug, fire hydrant - the terms were pretty much interchangeably used. I notice Wikipedia also lists the term “fire pump” which I’ve never heard.
Grew up and live in Chicago. I’ve heard “fireplug” occasionally, but it’s mostly from older generations and rarely used anymore (at least that I’m aware of). Looking through the Chicago Tribune archives as a sanity check, it seems like it was still being used in newspaper copy and headlines through the 70s.
(And the phrase comes from the literal wooden fire plugs that would be hammered into the old hollowed-out wood pipe system many cities had. Some pictures here)
There is a listserv discussion of fireplug at http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2004-February/subject.html#36137
that does not indicate regional so much as age-based replacement by fire hydrant.
(The selection took me to the middle of the discussion. there are entries above the top line, as well as below it.)
Pretty much the same. I know some people call hydrants ‘fireplugs’ but I can’t recall ever using the word for anything but describing a short stocky man.
My 84-year-old mom, who grew up in St. Louis, uses “fireplug” and “fire hydrant” pretty interchangeably. But I only ever hear/read “fire hydrant” otherwise. I also know “fireplug” as a term for a short, muscular guy, though I can’t recall the last time I read or heard it in that context. I think the word is probably fading out of use in either sense.
I grew up in northern WV and it was generally referred to as a fire hydrant. I am familiar with the term fireplug and didn’t even think twice about it when reading the dalmatian column, but now that I think about it I don’t recall having actually heard anyone use the term fireplug since I was little (late 60s/early 70s).
I’ve never heard the term used to describe someone’s body.
To me, a pump means an actual pump of some sort. There’s no pump in a hydrant. I’ve heard some fire trucks being called “pumper trucks” or “pumpers” since they pump the water at high pressure through the hose. But the hydrant is not a pump.
As others have mentioned, I know what the word “fireplug” means but I probably wouldn’t use it myself except in the context of “built like a …” I grew up in Oregon but I read a lot and have watched a lot of old movies, so who knows where I first heard it.
Philadelphia area: my grandfather (born 1898) definitely used “fireplug”, and I seem to recall my mother (born 1928) using it as well. I may have used it when younger, but no longer.
However, I can now add it to the list of semi-archaic terms I can use which drive my wife nuts - “ice box” for refrigerator and “fire house” for fire station…
Born and raised in Chicago, I remember people using the term “fire plug” when referring to a fire hydrant. Around these parts (Chicago suburbs) people use hydrant, fire hydrant, and fire plug interchangeably.
*fire plug
noun [ C ] uk /ˈfaɪə ˌplʌɡ/ us /ˈfaɪr ˌplʌɡ/ US
informal for fire hydrant*
Also, an internet search for “Chicago fire plug” provided several images of Chicago fire hydrants.
Born in Manhattan, transplanted to S. Indiana at age 14, have spent more years in Indiana than in NY. I have always said “fire hydrant,” but I remember people saying “fireplug” when I was a kid. Kids never said it, just adults, but fairly young adults.
In Indiana, I don’t remember ever hearing “fireplug.”
Kids go on field trips to fire stations now-- I went in preschool, and again in elementary school. I wonder when that started? If it started sometime around 1955-60, and the firefighters said “fire hydrant,” it could have made an impression on kids, so the usage changed. Teachers may have even been encouraged to say “fire hydrant,” as a more precise term.
So it may have been a Eastern-ish term that got supplanted sometime c. 1960.