fam

Forms

fām n (strong a-stem; genitive singular fāmes)^[1] Early spelling faam with the long vowel written double, in the Épinal, Erfurt and Corpus glossaries and the Old English Bede.^[2][3] Variant fǣm.^[1][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *faimaz (“foam”).^[1][5][6] Its only relatives in Germanic are Old High German feim (“foam”), Middle High German veim (“foam, dross”) and a Norwegian dialect word for a thin film of dew or floating fat.^[5][7]

Outside Germanic it is related to Latin spūma (“foam”), Sanskrit फेन (phéna, “foam”) and Lithuanian spáinė (“streak of foam”).^[5][7][1] Kroonen sets up a stem *(s)peh₃i-, and explains the m-forms (Latin) and n-forms (Sanskrit, Slavic) as two halves of one paradigm, the n arising from the m by dissimilation.^[5] Köbler reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *spoimno- (“foam”).^[6] Holthausen also compares Latin pūmex (“pumice”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is among the oldest English glosses: the Épinal Glossary (s. vii ex. or vii/viii) has famfaluca leasunq uel faam, glossing Latin “famfaluca” with “lie or foam”, and the Erfurt and Corpus glossaries repeat the gloss.^[8][2][3]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller translate it “foam”, rendering Latin “spuma”.^[9] Toller's Supplement separates the foam of living creatures, the froth at the mouth, from the froth of boiling liquid.^[10] The first is in the Old English Bede, where foam came out of a horse's mouth,^[9][3] and in the Lindisfarne gloss on Luke 9:39, mid famæ for “cum spuma”.^[10][11] The second is in Bald's Leechbook, in the instruction do þæt fam of clæne “skim off the foam”.^[12][3] In the Exeter Book riddles it is the foam of the sea, fam gewealcen “foam tossed”.^[13][3]

The word lived on as Middle English fom, first recorded about 1300, now foam.^[14][15]

Timeline

• s. vii ex. or vii/viii – faam glossing “famfaluca” in the Épinal Glossary.^[8][2][3]
• s. ix¹ – faam in the Corpus Glossary.^[16][3]
• s. x med. – the froth of boiling liquid in Bald's Leechbook.^[12][3]
• s. x² – sea foam, fam gewealcen, in an Exeter Book riddle.^[13][3]
• c. 1300 – Middle English fom, from the mouth of a great fish, in the South English Legendary.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. foam, froth at the mouth.^[9][10]
2. froth on a boiling liquid.^[10]
3. (poetic) the foam of the sea.^[9]

Word family

• fǣman

Descendants

• Middle English fom (→ English foam; Scots fame; Scots faim)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Pheifer, J. D. (1974), Old English Glosses in the Épinal-Erfurt Glossary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 112
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
4. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 265
5. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 123
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. fām
7. ^ a b c Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 98
8. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 610
9. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 270
10. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 204
11. ^ Cook, Albert S. (1894), A Glossary of the Old Northumbrian Gospels, Halle: Niemeyer, p. s.v. fam
12. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 412
13. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 223
14. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
15. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
16. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 76