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▪ I. † ˈplummy, a.1 Obs. rare.
[f. stem of plum v. + -y.]
Loose in texture, spongy, porous.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. lxiii. (Tollem. MS.), The tre [beech] is not ful sad and faste in substaunce, but plummy [ed. 1535 pory] and ful of holes [orig. Non est autem [fagus] in substantia arbor multum solida sed rara potius et porosa].
Hence † ˈplumminess1, sponginess, porousness.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. ii. (Bodl. MS. lf. 189 b/2), Aristotel seiþ þouȝe somme tree ne haue prikkes, þat comeþ nouȝt of þe entente of kinde þat gendreþ þe tree, but happeþ of plumines [MSS. and ed. 1495 plummes] of þe tree, þat draweþ colde humoure þat is litel digeste, and passeþ out atte plumines [MSS. and ed. plummes] of the tree, and is iharded into a prik oþer a þorne bi heete of þe sonne. [Orig. Sed accidit ex raritate arboris siue plante per quam attrahitur humor frigidus parum coctus & exiens per illam arboris raritatem a calore solis in spinam coagulatur.]
▪ II. plummy, a.2|ˈplʌmɪ|
[f. plum n. + -y.]
1. Consisting of, abounding in, or like plums.
1759Miss Talbot in Eliz. Carter's Lett. (1808) I. 448 You have been all your life in a great error in eating that strange jumble of substantives, plumb-cake, when the adverb plumby is plainly the right thing. 1861Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. III. clvii. 164 They do not want the cake to be shorn of its plums. It would not do, to have the ‘plummy stuff’ taken out. 1885L. F. Day in Art Jrnl. 213/1 The ground of a plummy brown.
2. fig.
a. Of the nature of a ‘plum’; rich, good, desirable. slang or colloq.
1812J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Plummy, right; very good; as it should be: expressing your approbation of any act, or event. 1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. ii. xvi, Signing one's self over to wickedness for the sake of getting something plummy. 1890Tablet 10 May 729 So far from getting anything plummy by becoming Catholics, Anglican clergy⁓men have often to make great sacrifices.
b. Of the voice, then of sound gen.: thick-sounding, rich, ‘fruity’; indistinct; with bass predominating.
1881Punch 23 July 25/2 The same aged lover was bidding, with rather a ‘plummy’ voice, the More-than-Middle-Aged Heroine ‘good bye for ever’. 1947Jrnl. Inst. Electrical Engin. XCIV. iiia 446/1 Such distortions can be tolerated..without serious loss of articulation, though the speech will usually sound rather ‘plummy’ and unnatural. 1951K. Harris Innocents from Abroad 199 The rich, plummy voice of [actor] Edward Arnold. 1955Times 3 May 14/4 A disc which sounds plummy and muffled in tone. 1965G. McInnes Road to Gundagai xi. 197 His voice..was wonderfully plummy and Edwardian. 1970Daily Tel. 1 Sept. 9/5 All India Radio—modelled..on the BBC, even down to the plummy accents of its announcers. 1975City Press 1 May 16/5 Her duchess on the make is a finely pointed performance, the plummy vowels contrasting splendidly with consonants periodically marred by the lack of false teeth. 1977Early Mus. Oct. 549/3 The plummy..tone [of Flemish virginals] is evidently more popular than the musically versatile but astringent Italian virginal. 1978Gramophone Feb. 1439/1 His tone is mellow, but again, as in the Waltzes..the sound sometimes seems a bit plummy and close.
3. Comb., as plummy-voiced adj.
1972Jazz & Blues Oct. 8/3 His smooth, plummy-voiced style. 1978Times 21 Jan. 14/7 The plummy-voiced announcers.
Hence ˈplumminess2; ˈplummily adv.
1927J. Masefield Midnight Folk 208 You haven't got such a thing as a seedless raisin about you?.. It's a real treat..to taste a bit of plumminess. 1953John o' London's Weekly 13 Mar. 208/4, I was not persuaded at the première by his ‘young Octavius’, who had a curious plumminess. 1955Times 31 Aug. 5/4 The creamy richness—free from all ‘plumminess’—of her contralto voice is a constant delight. 1958Listener 25 Dec. 1092/2 It was all splendidly true to type, and plummily theatrical. 1962Ibid. 8 Feb. 268/3 The plumminess of the normal Wagnerian baritone. 1972A. Ross London Assignment 17 ‘Go ahead, old boy,’ he said plummily, ‘He's all yours.’
Add:[2.] c. transf. Of a person: having a ‘plummy’ voice; hence, aristocratic, upper-class. Also of places, etc. associated with such persons. colloq.
1976New Yorker 26 Jan. 101/1 The atmosphere of Albany remained more elusive than the plummy Victorian coziness of Baker Street. 1977Time Out 17–23 June 61/1 When translated—the rather plummy waitresses ‘deliver’ the translation to every table—the result is a good range of imaginative bistro food. 1981Washington Post 3 May c2/2 A posh place in London—the Kensington Gore, no less, plummy as its name. Ibid. 14 May d15/4 He's not one of those plummy Etonians whose first brush with the stage came when their nanny took them. 1983Listener 24 Nov. 38/2 He was both prissy and plummy. He wore a monocle. |