The Wall Outlet Was Incorrectly Named

Look, I know you’re busy, so I’m getting straight to the point. This thing, found in every home in the U.S., is commonly known as an outlet:

But dern-it, we’ve been using the wrong term for well over a century. It should be called an inlet. If it were an outlet, electricity would be spilling out of the holes and onto the floor. And that’s just silly. We all know that you have to plug in to the holes to access the electricity. Ergo, inlet. You know that I’m right.

I would like to launch a campaign in hardware stores and other fine establishments to change the name of this item from outlet to inlet. You can join me in this fight. But, alas, I know from experience that my argument would fall on deaf ears: Years ago, I tried to persuade my baseball-loving friends to drop “RBIs,” the acronym for runs batted in, and replace it with “RsBI.” It makes a heckofa lot more sense, right? Yet, they refused to switch!

Back to electricity. In truth, there was a time when outlets were outlets, with live wires coming out of the wall. In the late 1800s, most light fixtures and other electrical devices were hard-wired in place. Moving or replacing a fixture meant disconnecting and reconnecting the electrical wires, which was both inconvenient and hazardous.

Then a Connecticut inventor, Harvey Hubbell, received a patent in 1904 for a doo-hickey that would plug into an adapter in a light socket, paving the way for interchangeable light fixtures and electrical appliances.

Soon, outlets (and plugs) were retooled, making them far more versatile—nobody had to unscrew a lightbulb just to plug in an iron. So multiple people could charge their cellphones simultaneously! Or the air fryer could be humming along while the printer was making copies.

To save my sanity, I will drop my plea to change outlet to inlet. And, better yet, I won’t try to explain the difference between an electrical outlet and a receptacle. Because I’m not exactly sure myself.