espuma

Forms

espuma f (plural espumas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin spūma (“foam, froth”), and Old Spanish already had the form espuma.^[2][3][4][1]

Corominas notes that the Latin word also survives in Surselvan spema, Logudorese ispuma and Romanian spumă, while most other Romance languages took over a Germanic word for “foam”, *skūmaz: Italian schiuma, French écume, Occitan escuma, Catalan escuma and Galician escuma.^[2][1] Beside these, spuma and Portuguese espuma are less popular words.^[2] Even Judeo-Spanish has Ladino escuma, and the Aragonese of Ansó has escluma.^[2] The Asturian form is espluma.^[5]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *spoimā (“foam”), and de Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *spoHi-m- or *speh₃i-m-, with cognates such as Old English fām and Old High German feim, from Proto-Germanic *faima-.^[6] The same root is in pūmex, the source of pómez.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH dates the word from Gonzalo de Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1236, in a late 13th-century copy), where a possessed woman falls to the ground la boca li torciendo, las espumas echando “twisting her mouth, foaming at the lips”.^[2][8] The BDELC gives 1220–1250.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's Lapidario already used espuma de mar for a stone, the hydrated magnesium silicate now called meerschaum, and espuma de la luna for a kind of gypsum.^[9] Covarrubias in 1611 defined the word as the light scum that a liquid throws up when it boils or is stirred, noted that a horse's slaver is also called espuma, and recorded the phrase crecer como espuma.^[10] The Diccionario de Autoridades added saliva and, in poetry, the sea itself, quoting Góngora's el Reino de la espuma.^[11] In 1817 the Academy explained crecer como espuma as making a quick fortune or rising fast in honours.^[12]

In the sugar trade of the Canaries and the Caribbean the plural espumas meant the scum skimmed off the boiling cane juice, and the coarse sugar made from it; it is recorded in Tenerife from 1507 and in Santo Domingo in 1548.^[13][14] The 1884 edition of the Academy's dictionary added the scum that rises when food is boiled.^[15] Modern Spanish uses it for foam rubber, for a light mousse-like dish and for cosmetic foams.^[4][16] In Andalusia it is a light, gauzy fabric.^[4][17] In the Dominican Republic, Argentina and Uruguay pura espuma describes a person or a situation that is less than it seems.^[18]

The derivatives espumar (1490), espumoso (1495), espumajo (early 15th century), espumarajo (early 17th century) and espumilla (1604) follow the noun.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos has las espumas echando.^[2][8]
• 1250 – the Moamín, a treatise on hunting birds, has el espuma, the froth that oozes from burning wood.^[8]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario names the stone espuma de mar.^[9]
• 1507 – sugar espumas in a notarial record of Tenerife.^[13]
• 1513 – Nebrija gives Latin spuma for espuma qualquiera.^[19]
• 1548 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo, also of sugar.^[14]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records crecer como espuma.^[10]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades adds saliva and the poetic “sea”.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin spuma.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. foam, froth: a mass of bubbles that forms on the surface of a liquid and holds together.^[4][1]
2. The scum of juice and impurities that rises in bubbles when some foods are boiled.^[4]
3. Foam rubber (gomaespuma).^[4][16]
4. A light dish made with beaten egg whites, sweet or savoury; a mousse.^[4][1]
5. A cosmetic product in the form of foam: espuma de afeitar “shaving foam”.^[16][20]
6. Something of no weight, substance or depth.^[4]
7. (colloquial) The best or most valued part of something, the cream (nata).^[4][16]
8. (Andalusia) A very light fabric, espumilla.^[4][17]

Word family

• espumar
• espumajo
• espumilla
• espumoso
• espumarajo
• espumadera

Related words

• pómez
• Latin spuma
• Catalan escuma

Usage notes

Espuma is also a form of the verb espumar.^[1] In the 13th century it often took the article el (el espuma), as in the Moamín and the Libro de los caballos.^[8] Set phrases are espuma de mar “meerschaum” and crecer or subir como la espuma “to rise or thrive very fast”.^[4][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 753
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. espuma
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. espuma
5. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
8. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
9. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. espuma
10. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 797
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 614
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 390
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle
14. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 462
16. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
17. ^ a b Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 265
18. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
19. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 350
20. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial