Obviously sumps are some kind of pits. But where does the word come from and what else can we learn about them?
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Well, first of all a sump can be a lot of other things than the ones I've mentioned. If you are looking up sump images, most of them will be metal or plastic as these days, we may first associate a sump with cars. In this case it's the oil reservoir in the internal combustion engine of a car. Sumps come in handy in mines, where water is accumulated at the bottom of a mine shaft. It can be a pond of water reserved for salt works. It can be just a pool or pond of dirty water. In fact, although I hadn't connected it before, we also have the sump pump, which removes unwanted water from basements. A sump, as far as I can tell, is a repository of unwanted or semi-unwanted things.
The Online Etymology Dictionary tells us that sump first came on the scene in the mid fifteenth century to mean a swamp or morass. It comes from the middle Dutch somp or the Middle Low German sump and goes back to the hypothesized ProtoIndoeuropean for "spongy". Our present meaning of "a pit to collect water" is from the 1650s. And that sump pump, first mentioned in 1884, was originally used in mines, not family basements.
The great slightly creepy photo is by Alfred T. Palmer. It was taken in 1927 and is entitled "OIL SUMP AT DRILLING RIG, SIGNAL HILL, LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA". You can view a few more of his evocative images HERE.
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We learn sumpin' new every post.
ReplyDeleteSo, do swamp and sump share a common etymological root? Perhaps not; the "w" sound tends to me more important than I think in philology.
ReplyDeleteNancy, it was funny that when it came to giving examples of the word used in a sentence, there were more that were on the theme of sumpin' than there were on the idea of a sump. Although there was a good one from Ulysses: "He plodges through their sump towards the lighted street beyond."
ReplyDeletePeter, the etymologists don't seem to be certain about where swamp comes from originally, but they think it's likely there is a connection to those sump and somp words. Where the w comes from, I don't know.
ReplyDeleteThis pun may be even worse than your first commenters: "Sumping in the way she moves ... '
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if it's worse, but it is a groaner.
ReplyDeleteI think I first noticed the word when I went to the old Saatchi Gallery in St John's Wood, during the '80s. There was a room filled with sump oil by the artist Richard Wilson. So that's always my association.
ReplyDeletehttp://bak.spc.org/everything/e/hard/text/wilson.html
This gives more info.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/alastair-sooke/6988825/Richard-Wilsons-2050-at-the-Saatchi-Gallery-review.html
Thanks, Paul. It does seem beautiful and I have to admit that this is not the impression I got of oil sumps or anything about oil from Delores Hitchens descriptions in Sleep With Strangers.
ReplyDeleteIt was a weird day! We'd crossed the famous zebra crossing in Abbey Road and saw the singer out of The Damned driving a hearse. Then my mate took me to what looked like a warehouse. The first thing I saw was a shark in formaldehyde and then went into what I thought was an empty room but turned out to be filled with oil. I was hungover and it freaked me out so we went to the pub next door!
ReplyDeleteWhat a day!
ReplyDeleteIf it weren't for the picture, we might have to suspect the whole incident, Paul.
ReplyDeleteIf i remember correctly, that Saatchi place wasn't an actual gallery but a 'viewing' room. Just a warehouse, really. They had a few more of Hirst's things and art students on the verge of stardom.
ReplyDeleteWhen I used to visit my friend Jeff in London there were lots of such days, it seems. But when I moved there life was very normal!
Isn't it always the way.
ReplyDeleteI can see from that sump photo why you liked my mammoth picture. There's just something about an oily image.
ReplyDeleteWell, in this case, it was more that it fits the atmosphere that I got from the Hitchens book.
ReplyDelete