fatberg
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]
From fat + berg, modelled on iceberg.[1]
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈfætbɜːɡ/
Audio (Received Pronunciation): (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ˈfætbɝɡ/
- Hyphenation: fat‧berg
Noun
[edit]fatberg (plural fatbergs)
- A large accumulation of fat and discarded toiletries which clogs sewers. [From the late 2000s.]
- 2009, Carlos J. Cortes, “The Prisoner”, in The Prisoner, New York, N.Y.: Spectra; Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 162:
- Months ago a tunnel was clogged with a fatberg. It took a team of workers a month to move it.
- 2013, Russ Litten, Swear Down[1], London: Tindal Street Press, →ISBN:
- Bleeding big fatberg up there. About half a ton's worth. [...] Gorman feels an involuntary shudder travel down his spine and agitate his stomach. He's seen those fatbergs on the training videos; huge accumulated walls of solidified grease and food and tissue and excrement, the churned result of everyday debris tipped down the domestic sinks and bathtubs and toilets of London.
- 2014, Adam Roberts, “Anne”, in Bête, London: Gollancz, →ISBN:
- Then I worked in the sewers of Manchester – a six month stint of that, jabbing pressure-water-poles at fatbergs, tonnes of used kebab grease and congealed sump oil, woven together with thousands of used wet wipes.
- 2017 November 3, “‘Victory declared’ over 130 tonne Whitechapel fatberg”, in BBC News[2], archived from the original on 18 March 2018:
- A 250-metre long fatberg weighing 130 tonnes which was blocking an east London sewer has been cleared after a nine-week "battle". The solid mass of congealed fat, wet wipes, nappies, oil and condoms was found in the Victorian-era tunnel in Whitechapel in September. Thames Water said it had taken longer to clear than expected because of the damage it caused to the sewer.
- 2023 June 30, Marina Hyde, “The tide is coming in fast on Rishi Sunak – and it’s full of sewage”, in The Guardian[3]:
- Thames Water has become the latest object lesson in the predictable and predicted folly of privatised monopolies, aided by a regulator that’s an even bigger wet wipe than the fatbergs bunging up the sewers.
Translations
[edit]large accumulation of fat, etc., which clogs sewers
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Notes
[edit]- ^ On display at the Museum of London in London, England, UK.
References
[edit]- ^ “fatberg, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2017; “fatberg”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
