Throughout my life I have heard many unusual terms used in daily conversation and wondered how they came into use. With the Internet and artificial intelligence so readily available today it is quite easy to learn more about such things. The term that recently triggered my curiosity was “pipe dream”. A pipe dream is defined as “ an unrealistic, fanciful, or highly improbable hope, plan, or idea — something that is pleasant to imagine but very unlikely to ever come true.” 

As a mechanical engineer with a lot of heavy industrial construction experience I found it difficult to imagine how the definition of “pipe dream” related to pipes. I didn’t realize that I was considering the wrong kind of pipe. The term relates to opium pipes and the hallucinations and daydreams which opium smokers experienced. AHA!  Now it makes sense to me.