fume

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English fume,^[2][1] borrowed from Old French fum (“smoke, steam, vapour”),^[3][4][5][6] and perhaps in part directly borrowed from Latin fūmus (“smoke, steam”).^[3][2] Old French also had a feminine fume in the same sense, formed from the verb.^[3][7][8] The verb is inherited from Middle English fumen,^[9] borrowed from Old French fumer (“to smoke, burn”),^[4][5][3] from Latin fūmō (“to smoke, steam”),^[4][5][3] from the Latin noun.^[4][5] The Latin noun, the source of Italian fumo and Spanish humo,^[4][10] goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dʰuh₂mós (“smoke”),^{[1][5][10][11]} from the root Proto-Indo-European *dheu- (“dust, vapour, smoke”).^[4] Its cognates include Lithuanian dūmai, Latvian dūmi, Old Prussian dumis and Polish dym, all meaning smoke,^[10][11] and Ancient Greek θῦμός (thūmós, “spirit, mind, soul”),^[10][12] while Germanic has Old Saxon dōmian (“to steam”) and Old High German toum (“steam, mist”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A vapour or exhalation of the body, thought to produce emotions and dreams: about 1390, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales,^[5][13] with Etymonline's date of the late 14th century.^[4] The OED's first quotations are from about 1400.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In old medicine a fume was an exhalation of the body that produced emotions, dreams or sloth,^[4][5] and later especially a vapour rising to the head and dulling the senses.^[4][3] From the same period the noun meant smoke or vapour from a heated substance,^[5][3] and also a smell, pleasant or not, given off by a substance or a flower.^[3] Vapour as something unreal gave a figurative sense in 1531, and in 1574 the word was used for whatever clouds the judgement like drink.^[3] The verb first meant to fumigate, about 1400;^[3][4][5] its sense "to show anger" is recorded in the 1520s, a little before "to emit smoke" in the 1530s.^[4][3] Barnhart finds it in a treatise by Sir Thomas More of 1522.^[5] Ayto explains it, like seethe, by the idea of being hot or steaming with fury,^[11] and the noun has meant a fit of anger, chiefly in the phrase in a fume, since before 1529, in Skelton.^[3] From 1665, in Hooke, the word is used for the vapour of acids and volatile substances, especially an irritant one, and this sense has become the main one, usually in the plural.^[3][7] Johnson (1755) still listed smoke, vapour, and exhalation from the stomach as separate senses.^[14] The verb gained technical uses too: from 1890 in photography, for exposure to ammonia fumes,^[3] and fumed oak is oak darkened in the same way.^[7] In dialect fume was lead smoke in Northumberland, and the verb meant to become inflamed in Shropshire and Herefordshire.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1390 – a vapour or exhalation of the body, in Chaucer.^[5][13] The OED has this sense from about 1400.^[3]
• c. 1395 – smoke or vapour given off by a heated substance.^[5] The OED has smoke from before 1400.^[3]
• c. 1400 – verb, to fumigate.^[3][4][5]
• c. 1400 – a smell given off by a substance or flower.^[3]
• c. 1450 – strong-smelling smoke, as of incense.^[3]
• 1522 – verb, to show anger, in More.^[5] The OED dates More's text before 1535, and Etymonline dates the sense to the 1520s.^[3][4]
• before 1529 – noun, a fit of anger, in Skelton.^[3]
• 1531 – something as unreal or fleeting as smoke.^[3]
• c. 1533 – verb, to emit fumes or smoke.^[3][4]
• c. 1550 – vapour or mist rising from the earth or sea.^[3][7]
• 1574 – something that intoxicates the mind or clouds judgement.^[3]
• 1665 – the vapour of acids and volatile substances, in Hooke.^[3]
• 1890 – verb, in photography, to expose to ammonia fumes.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A gas, smoke or vapour, often strong-smelling or harmful, usually in the plural: Diesel fumes filled the underground garage.^[16][9][7]
2. A sharp or strong odour.^[16][3]
3. A suspension of fine particles in air or gas.^[9]
4. A fit of anger or irritation, chiefly in the phrase in a fume.^[16][3][7]
5. A vapour formerly believed to rise from the stomach to the brain, especially after drinking.^[3][7][14]
6. (rare) Vapour or mist rising from the earth or sea.^[7][3]

Verb

1. To feel or show anger: He sat fuming in the stalled traffic.^[16][3][7]
2. To give off fumes or smoke.^[16][3][9]
3. Of fumes, to rise or be given off.^[16][3][7]
4. To treat with fumes; to fumigate, as with wood or photographic materials.^[16][9][3]
5. To burn incense before; to perfume with incense.^[3][7]
6. (obsolete, 1602–1661) To preserve by smoking.^[3][7]

Word family

• fumy
• fumeless
• fumelike
• fumer
• fumingly
• fumed

Related words

• fumigate
• perfume
• fumarole
• fumitory
• sfumato
• thyme
• dust

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ 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 33 34 35 36 37 38 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins