Those of you who say “plug socket”, why?
Posted by ScaryBluejay87@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 65 comments
A plug goes into a socket, how does saying “plug socket” differentiate it from any other socket (like USB or HDMI), which you also insert a plug into?
GrabbedByTheGhost@reddit
A plug socket instead of a bone socket or eye socket would be my guess.
GenX7701@reddit
I think the kind of people that use that term could be the same kind of people that use the term
"It is what it is"
Because they both state the obvious.
Alarming-You1703@reddit
A 'plug' for a mains socket has been around for a lot longer than 'USB' or 'HDMI'. you're just pulling an old adjective out of the past and trying to plug in all the new tech under the same banner.
GenX7701@reddit
"Plugs" and "Sockets" have been around for centuries in one form or another, they are basic general terms.
If you're referring to electricity connections, it would be "mains socket"
If you're referring to ear protection it would be "ear plugs"
Yes "plug socket" has and is being used but that doesn't mean it's the most logical term
ScaryBluejay87@reddit (OP)
I’m really not, it’s not just used for power.
Alarming-You1703@reddit
Ah, hold on. My son has just asked me where the charger plug is, lol.
Underwritingking@reddit
Plug socket differentiates it clearly from USB socket.
"do you have a socket?"
points to USB socket
"no, I meant a USB socket"
alternatively, points to USB socket
"no, I meant a plug socket"
ScaryBluejay87@reddit (OP)
If I were told “plug socket” as a clarification relative to just a general socket, how exactly is that supposed to help? A socket by definition is something that you insert a plug into. It technically doesn’t narrow it down at all.
Underwritingking@reddit
I think you're being a bit obtuse here TBH
I don't think in colloquial, generally used English that anyone generally refers to a USB plug as just a "plug" (or an HDMI plug for that matter). Plug is generally considered to mean a three pin electrical plug, and plug socket to mean a three pin electrical socket
So if you Google "plug socket"....
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=plug+socket&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
or "plug"...
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=plug&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
you can see what comes up here in the UK. Sorry if you find it a bit unsettling or inaccurate or whatever, but I doubt Google will change their algorithms.
ScaryBluejay87@reddit (OP)
I understand that that’s what people mean when they say that, what I don’t understand is why they feel the need to add “plug” before it in the first place. None of the replies to my question have actually answered that.
GenX7701@reddit
I think the correct answer is the difference between people that actually think about what they are stating and people that are just parroting what they have heard.
Underwritingking@reddit
I think Google is your friend here - it's clearly how it's said, how people understand it, how search engines "understand" it, how catalogues work etc etc.
I get it that you don't get how the world works here, but I wouldn't choose this as something to fret and obsess and be pedantic about, any more than the linguistic change in this country from Railway Station to Train Station that's happened in my lifetime.
SirLoinThatSaysNi@reddit
Because most people know exactly what that means. it's been on common use like that for years.
You could fill your life for minor inconsistencies between dictionary definitions and how language is used.
afungalmirror@reddit
It's the socket you put a plug into.
ScaryBluejay87@reddit (OP)
Okay, but what else could you conceivably plug into a socket? What does it distinguish between?
fluffton@reddit
I would only put a plug in a plug socket. But if you ask me where the socket is, you might be directed to the garage to go and fetch my socket set to find which size socket you need.
GenX7701@reddit
What type of plug ?
TC_FPV@reddit
A hip bone?
There's more than one type of socket
GenX7701@reddit
Ear plug ?
There's more than one type of plug
imminentmailing463@reddit
I think you're overthinking this. It's not being used as a differentiator. It's just the name people call it.
ScaryBluejay87@reddit (OP)
Okay, but why? That’s my question.
imminentmailing463@reddit
Yes and that's where I mean you're overthinking. People use the phrase simply because that's what they have learned to be the name of a mains electric outlet.
It may be redundant, but English is full of redundant phrases. Advance warning, past experience, armed gunman, twelve midnight. All phrases where the first word is technically made redundant by the second, yet which people use. There's many more.
Language is not always rational or logical, so trying to discern a rationale behind why people use certain words or phrases is going to be very difficult. You'd need to find an etymologist to ascertain why 'plug socket' came to be the phrase people use.
Figgzyvan@reddit
Dial a number, hang up the phone.
00332200@reddit
Sometimes the answer is "it just is".
Lower_Possession_697@reddit
Maybe because it was the first kind of socket that people widely used?
Valuable-Wallaby-167@reddit
Sockets
There are multiple things we use both words for, but only one thing we use the words for together.
afungalmirror@reddit
I don't know, why do bottles of bleach say "do not drink" on them?
OakMob@reddit
Plug socket is mains electricity.
GenX7701@reddit
Then it should really be "mains" socket not plug as "plug" is a very general term
Ilejwads@reddit
oh my god who cares
CarpeCyprinidae@reddit
They're probably the same people who say train station. It's a railway station.
terryjuicelawson@reddit
This is a new one for me on pedant's corner, why on earth would this matter.
Lower_Possession_697@reddit
Nooo, it's a massive bugbear for the small-minded.
There's an absolute type that it annoys:
Male, late 50s-70s, whispy white hair, red face, probably metal framed glasses. Has a very tidy garden shed. If there's a wife then she's alienated and regrets her life choices.
terryjuicelawson@reddit
They probably have a memorised list of phrases that technically originated or are more popular in America which they base their opinions on, I think Railway Station is chiefly British.
Lower_Possession_697@reddit
Do you catch a coach from a road station?
CarpeCyprinidae@reddit
What else could you catch that runs on a railway?
Lower_Possession_697@reddit
What?
CarpeCyprinidae@reddit
We differentiate bus stations and coach stations from each other and from being on roads because lots of different vehicles run on roads, but only buses and coaches stop at them.
Only trains stop at railway stations.
tmstms@reddit
yes, but the person could be differentiating the "train station" from the "bus station"
E.g. I'm catching the No, 52 and picking it up at the train station
Lower_Possession_697@reddit
Not really, you can often catch a bus or a cab at a railway station, and sometimes a tram in some cities.
BojimHorseguy@reddit
Entirely normal people then, as opposed to tiresome pedants on the internet?
MrTobleroneLover19@reddit
Why on earth not? ... It's like "big light" everyone knows what it is
sucksblueeggs@reddit
You insert plugs into a USB socket? Or are USB connectors also plugs? I’m not sure this will catch on, OP
ScaryBluejay87@reddit (OP)
A plug is just a male connector, and a socket is just a female connector. Saying plug socket is like saying male female connector.
saswir@reddit
No, I think the full extension of the phrase would be "socket for the plug", not just plug + socket
sucksblueeggs@reddit
I see. You may well be correct, but if I say plug socket, most will understand what I’m referring to
ScaryBluejay87@reddit (OP)
I get that, I just don’t get why it’s a thing people say.
However I did read a comment earlier on a different post where the person said plug socket and I genuinely didn’t know if they were referring to a plug or a socket, but that’s kinda down to the grammar of that particular person.
AmosEgg@reddit
Plug socket - a socket for plugs. Where plug is shorthand for Type G mains power plug. It’s the default meaning of plug (along with bath/sink plug which, unless you work in an old-fashioned ironmongers, will be obvious from the context).
ScaryBluejay87@reddit (OP)
Okay, but if that’s the default meaning of plug, why is that not the default meaning of socket?
People use plug socket quite a lot to refer to sockets, yet I’ve never heard anyone call a Type G male connector a “socket plug”.
AmosEgg@reddit
A socket plug is something different. It's like a bung.
Maybe it could be called a "plug socket plug"?
GaryJM@reddit
Not OP but, yeah, I would plug a USB plug into a USB socket. What do you call them? USB male connector into USB female connector?
sucksblueeggs@reddit
It would be a USB cable into USB port, but I appreciate the actual cable isn’t the bit that goes into said port.
GaryJM@reddit
"Port" is interesting because I would call a USB socket on a computer a USB port but I wouldn't call one on a power supply a port.
ArcTan_Pete@reddit
Plug socket versus ethernet socket - both in the same floor boxes
Plug sockets are for electrical plugs.
Ethernet socket is for the ethernet connector/ RJ45
generally you would not call it an RJ45 plug, so the difference is obvious
wasdice@reddit
Lightbulbs also go in sockets
Relevant_Cancel_144@reddit
Probably for the same reason people say PIN number (personal identification number number) rather than just pin. If you think of a pin you might think of a thin steel pin rather than a number so if asked to put a pin into a computer you clarify it's a number not a metal thing.
If I said how many sockets do you have in your room it can be ambiguous as you could include any ports and sockets for various mating of male and female connectors, and if you happen to have a socket set that you keep in a drawer that also may be how you construe the question. If instead I asked how many plug sockets you have, I'm clarifying the exact meaning of my question to remove ambiguity.
English in its very nature is imprecise so we use these redundant terms to add clarity.
redligand@reddit
I sometimes worry about how some people on this sub manage to live independently.
Clever_Username_467@reddit
Not all sockets have plugs and not all plugs go in sockets.
imminentmailing463@reddit
It's a socket for a plug. I have never ever heard someone call a USB or HDMI cable a 'plug'.
ScaryBluejay87@reddit (OP)
Okay so what do you plug an HDMI cable into? Is it an HDMI port? Or is it an HDMI cable port?
imminentmailing463@reddit
I'd probably say the HDMI socket. If I was instructing someone I'd probably say something like "put the HDMI into the HDMI socket". Or maybe "slot".
Dazzling_Ad5338@reddit
It is to mean the mains electricity. Plugging a plug into the wall socket. I've never heard anyone call a USB a "plug" only wire or cable.
ScaryBluejay87@reddit (OP)
Both USB and HDMI exist as plugs and sockets separately, plug and socket simply mean male and female connector respectively, which obviously exist for every type of connector, hence my confusion.
Dazzling_Ad5338@reddit
No, you're just being obtuse.
GaryJM@reddit
If you think that's bad, there are people out there who call both the plug and the socket "a plug".