Plum

[pluhm] /plʌm/

noun
1.
the drupaceous fruit of any of several trees belonging to the genus Prunus, of the rose family, having an oblong stone.
2.
the tree itself.
3.
any of various other trees bearing a plumlike fruit.
4.
the fruit itself.
5.
a .
6.
a raisin, as in a cake or pudding.
7.
a deep purple varying from bluish to reddish.
8.
Informal. an excellent or desirable thing, as a fine position:
The choicest plums went to his old cronies.
9.
Informal. an unanticipated large increase in money or property, as an unexpected legacy; a windfall:
The company offered bonuses and other plums.
10.
Also called displacer. a large stone used in massive concrete construction.
adjective, plummer, plummest.
11.
extremely desirable, rewarding, profitable, or the like:
a plum job in the foreign service.
[pluhm] /plʌm/
adjective, adverb
1.
(defs 2–6).
[pluhm] /plʌm/
noun
1.
a city in SW Pennsylvania.
/plʌm/
noun
1.
a small rosaceous tree, Prunus domestica, with white flowers and an edible oval fruit that is purple, yellow, or green and contains an oval stone See also greengage, damson
2.
the fruit of this tree
3.
a raisin, as used in a cake or pudding
4.

5.
(informal)

/plʌm/
adjective, adverb
1.
a variant spelling of plumb (sense 3), plumb (sense 4), plumb (sense 5), plumb (sense 6)
n.

Old English plume “plum, plum tree,” from an early Germanic borrowing (cf. Middle Dutch prume, Dutch pruim, Old High German pfluma, pfruma, German Pflaume) from Vulgar Latin *pruna, from Latin prunum “plum,” from Greek prounon, later form of proumnon, of unknown origin, perhaps from an Asiatic language (Phrygian?). Also cf. prune (n.). Change of pr- to pl- is peculiar to Germanic. The vowel shortened in early modern English. Meaning “something desirable” is first recorded 1780, probably in reference to the sugar-rich bits of a plum pudding, etc.

modifier

: who recently got the plum job of heading the county’s Department of Human Resources

noun

Something highly prized, esp an easy job with high pay and prestige, often given for political favors: The winners get to pick all the plums (1825+)

[probably influenced by Little Jack Horner’s feat of reaching in his thumb and pulling out a plum (in fact a raisin); compare early 1800s British plummy, ”good, desirable”]

A compiler for a substantial subset of PL/I for the Univac 1100, from the University of Maryland.
[“PL/I Programming with PLUM”, M.V. Zelkowitz, Paladin House, 1978].
(1995-02-23)