OT. Why "plug top"

I've always wondered why people say "plug top" when they're talking about a 13 amp mains plug?

Isn't it just a plug?

A mains plug does indeed have a top I guess - the bit that comes off when you undo the screw - they're not referring to that, but the whole plug!

Then there's the people who call sockets plugs .......!

I think I've been in lockdown too long!

Reply to
Murmansk
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Have you been working with my apprentices?

Reply to
ARW

If it's good enough for

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Probably because originally, when there were very few appliances and very many incompatible styles of plugs, plugs+sockets were often sold in a matching pair, hence you had a plug-top and a plug.

Owain

Reply to
spuorgelgoog

there was a young lad in our amateur theatre who wanted a "negative" screwdriver.

Reply to
charles

Presumably they're the same people who call 13A mains sockets "plug sockets"?

Reply to
Andy Burns

Unlikely since the socket was permanently installed.

Reply to
charles

Just the plug would be the bit that goes in the hole.

So I suppoose it should really be a plug and top.

Well, if a plug top is that bit that goes on top then I suppose the rest must be the plug :)

Reply to
DJC

That's actually a nice bit of lateral thinking: a flat-blade screwdriver is a "negative" and a Philips cross-head is a "positive". If he didn't know the correct name, he invented one whose meaning was (hopefully) immediately understood.

Better than asking for striped paint or a tin of sparks for the grinder ;-)

Reply to
NY

It was. But he'd misheard "Pozidrive" as "positive"

Reply to
charles

I had a boss who wanted "bull points" on the word processor.

She meant an unordered list.

Owain

Reply to
spuorgelgoog

In article snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com, Murmansk snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com writes

I don't know the answer to your question, but I did find that if I asked for 1/2 dozen plug tops I got them at trade price whereas 1/2 dozen plugs came at retail price.

Reply to
Chris Holford

Well, I wondered this as well, but was told that it was because of said people who did not know tops from bottoms, so to speak and did not want to make the male female comparison, which is daft cose if they used plug and receptacle or socket it would suffice. I remember somebody making multiple coloured tops or for plugs which then make s it more confusing. Ie I need some 13amp plugtops with a green plug top a red plug top and a yellow plug top. Nurse bring on the men in white coats. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff (Sofa)

you can only see the top when plugged in ...

Reply to
Jim GM4DHJ ...

Did you ever see the front of the Enya album, Paint the Sky with Stars? She was pictured with a pot of paint and a brush doing exactly tat. Very silly, but then why not? Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff (Sofa)

Forget all this nonsense ! What irritates me is people talking about plugging out an appliance. Its unplugging you mean

Reply to
fred

My mum used to do that, so not new. And she was around in the days of gas lighting.

Did try and explain things to her. ;-)

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I had one that actually failed to fill a skip.

Nice pile of rubbish next to the empty skip.

Reply to
ARW

I've always wondered why people say "plug top" when they're talking about a 13 amp mains plug?

Is that a regional thing? I'm pushing 50 years old and I've never heard that expression in my life.

Regards.

Ant.

Reply to
anonymousrapscallion

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