eli5: Why are there “silent letters” in words if they’re not meant to be pronounced? E.g. Why spell it “plumber” instead of “plummer”?

Question

This is true for a lot of words and I don’t understand what the point of including letters if they’re not supposed to be pronounced.

In: 6

Answer 1

derived from the Latin word ‘plumbum’, meaning lead (as in lead pipes). The word plumber gradually came to mean a person who installs pipes. It’s pronounced as it’s spelled. We’ve just decided over time that plummer was better than plum-ber