froth

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English froth, also frooth,^[2] usually explained as borrowed from Old Norse froða (“froth”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} possibly representing frauð as well, with a later shortening of the vowel as in cloth.^[7][8][9] The OED and Barnhart hedge the borrowing with "perhaps" and "probably",^[7][10] since the noun is not found in Old English,^[7][10] which has only the verb Old English āfrēoðan (“to froth”).^[11][7] The Gersum Project thinks an unrecorded native form possible, but gives the benefit of the doubt to Old Norse,^[8] and Etymonline allows either.^[12] The Norse nouns are formed on the grades Proto-Germanic *fruþ- and *frauþ- of a verbal root *freuþ-;^[8] Köbler enters the first as *fruþō-.^[13] Danish fraade is related,^[7][12] while the relation of Swedish fradga is obscure.^[7] Barnhart and Köbler go on to Proto-Indo-European *preut-, from a root meaning "to spring up" or "to spray",^[10][13] Merriam-Webster Unabridged compares Ancient Greek πρήθω (prḗthō, “to blow up”),^[2] and Partridge thinks it probably echoic at bottom.^[14] The verb comes from the noun,^[7][10][9] though Old Norse had freyða too.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Small bubbles formed in a liquid: about 1384, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible, where the verb, to emit foam, is also first recorded.^[7][10] Etymonline dates the noun to about 1300,^[12] but the Gersum Project finds it only from the late 14th century on.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The physical word was soon applied to foaming saliva, about 1400 in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,^[7][8] and in 1541, in Elyot, to the scum that rises on boiling liquids.^[7] Its lightness made it a figure for something insubstantial or worthless from 1594, in Shakespeare's Lucrece,^[7] and a term of contempt for people from 1603,^[7] as in "Froth and scum, thou liest!" in The Merry Wives of Windsor.^[9] An older figurative use, for what is tender or immature, in Hoccleve before 1420, died out after 1557.^[7] In slang froth meant beer from 1601 and champagne in Surtees (1853).^[15] Johnson (1755), who took it as Danish, defined the noun as spume and foam, the bubbles raised in liquors by agitation.^[16] The verb gained the transitive sense "to make foam" in the early 17th century^[7][9] and "to cover with foam" soon after, according to the Shorter Oxford,^[9] though the OED's first quotation for the latter is Smollett's of 1771.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1384 – noun, bubbles in a liquid; verb, to emit foam or send out as foam.^[7][10]
• c. 1400 – foaming saliva.^[7]
• before 1420 – something tender or immature (obsolete by 1557).^[7]
• 1541 – scum on a boiling liquid.^[7]
• 1594 – something insubstantial or of little worth.^[7]
• 1601 – beer, in slang.^[15]
• 1602 – verb, to cause to foam.^[7]
• 1603 – worthless people.^[7]
• 1771 – verb, to cover with froth.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mass of small bubbles in or on a liquid, as from fermentation or stirring; foam: The stout had a thick froth on top.^[17][2][7]
2. Foamy saliva at the lips, as in rabies or exhaustion.^[17][2][7]
3. Something light and of little value, such as trivial talk or entertainment: The new sitcom is pure froth.^[17][2][7]
4. Scum rising on a liquid as it boils.^[2][7][9]
5. (derogatory, now rare) A worthless person or people.^[7][9]
6. (slang) Beer.^[15]

Verb

1. To give off or gather froth; to foam, especially at the mouth: The horse was frothing after the long gallop.^[17][2][7]
2. To make something foam: She frothed the milk for her coffee.^[17][2][7]
3. To cover with froth.^[17][2][7]
4. To give out in or like froth; now rare, and in the OED only with out.^[17][7][9]

Word family

• frother
• frothy

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Dance, Richard; Pons-Sanz, Sara; Schorn, Brittany, eds., The Gersum Project: The Scandinavian Influence on English Vocabulary, gersum.org
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
12. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
14. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
15. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins