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Last edited 10 Nov 2023

Spigot

Spigot has a number of different meanings depending on context and country. In British English is a word used mainly to mean a stopper, being used from around the 1300's to describe the stopper used to block the vent in a cask, often a shaped piece of wood. In a similar vain in American English, spigot might be used instead of tap or faucet, which acts as a stopper to water in buildings.

In construction terms, specifically plumbing a spigot joint is a piping joint creating two differing sized pipes, where one has an outside circumference the same as the inner circumference of the other, pushed together creating a tight fit. These joints might be referred to as spigot and socket joints, bell and spigot joints or bell and socket joints, because the female outer pipe is usually thinker at the end where the joint occurs, creating a bell shape.

The term spigot may also be used in engineering to describe a cylindrical element shaped on similar principles to the plumbing term, a metal jointing piece which connects two structural elements through insertion. The external diameters of these pieces might be the same or with one side larger, sometimes with holes on each side to connect the outer element to the spigot.

This type of structural connection is commonly used in the design of tent structures, connection poles together and a key component of scaffolding systems for construction sites. In these situations the spigot may have a holes, which receives a pin from the outside once in place or a sprung pin within the spigot design which retracts when being inserted into the female element and spring out to a location hole, locking the joint in place.