SIMURG
bung
EN
n.
A stopper especially for the hole through which a cask, keg, or barrel is filled or emptied.
A bung made of glass, plastic, rubber, earthenware, silicone, or wood, is a barrel’s stopper, analogous to the cork of a bottle. It is inserted in a bung-hole. If a barrel is stored so that the bung is at its highest point, this position is called bung up and the bung may be left so that gas can escape from the bung-hole. Some bungs even incorporate a device that encourages this. If a barrel is stored with the bung at either two or 10 o’clock, the position is called bung over.
As you might surmise from the name, a bunghole is a hole for a bung, a form of specialized plug.
/ˈbʌŋhəʊl/
cellar plug
Mid-15c., "large stopper for a cask," from Middle Dutch bonge "stopper;" or perhaps from French bonde "bung, bunghole" (15c.), which may be of Germanic origin (or the Germanic words may be borrowed from Romanic), or it may be from Gaulish *bunda (cf. Old Irish bonn, Gaelic bonn, Welsh bon "base, sole of the foot"). It is possible that either or both of these sources is ultimately from Latin puncta in the sense of "hole." Transferred to the cask-mouth itself (also bung-hole) from 1570s.
Università degli Studi di Genova, Facoltà di Lingue e Letterature Straniere, Corso di Laurea in Teorie e Tecniche della Mediazione Interlinguistica.
Stefano Costa
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bung
Robinson J., The Oxford Companion to WINE, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1994, p. 162
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-bunghole.htm#
http://www.wordreference.com/enit/bunghole
http://www.watson.it/Glossario
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=bung&searchmode=none