pomice

Forms

pomice f (plural pomici)^[1] Old and dialect forms include Old Italian pomece, Old Italian pumece and Venetian pomega.^[2] The DEI records Old Venetian pómega in 1319, and the REW Venetian pyera pómega and Sardinian pedra fùmiga.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin pōmex, accusative pōmicem, recorded in glosses, a variant of classical Latin pūmex (“pumice”).^[5][6][7][1] DELI and Nocentini take the /oː/ of the Late Latin form to be Oscan-Umbrian;^[5][6] Nocentini notes that the Oscan area included Vesuvius, where pumice came from.^[5][6]

The same Latin form is French ponce, from which Spanish pómez and Portuguese pomes were borrowed.^[6][3][4]

The classical word goes back to Proto-Italic *poimeks, and de Vaan connects it with spūma (“foam”), from a Proto-Indo-European *(s)poHi-m- (“foam”): pumice looks like petrified foam.^[8][1][9] The DEI saw instead a Mediterranean relic word related to Ancient Greek σπόγγος (spóngos, “sponge”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Florentine document of 1288, where the word names the porous, light volcanic stone used for smoothing.^[2] DELI's first record is Zucchero Bencivenni, 1310.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From Old Italian on the word named the stone and its use: menare a pomice was to work something with pumice, and figuratively to wear down or skin.^[2] Benvenuto Cellini advised polishing with a white, even and fine pumice.^[10] The verb pomiciare, to polish with pumice, is recorded before 1571.^[5]

In the 20th century pomiciare took a new sense from the image of rubbing: a pomicione, in Roman popular speech, was a man who rubbed up against women, and DELI dates the word to 1942 and the sense of the verb to 1950.^[5][6] Modern geology uses pomice for a glassy volcanic rock, and Wiktionary gives the plural the sense of a volcanic eruption.^[7][1]

Timeline

• 1288 – First record, in a Florentine document.^[2]
• 1310 – Zucchero Bencivenni uses the word.^[5]
• 1319 – Old Venetian pómega is recorded.^[3]
• Before 1571 – Benvenuto Cellini uses pomiciare “to polish with pumice”.^[5]
• 1942 – Pomicione is recorded as a Roman popular word.^[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (petrology) pumice: a light, porous, glassy volcanic rock, used ground as an abrasive for polishing marble and metals and in lightweight building materials: pietra pomice.^[7][11][12]
2. (in the plural) A volcanic eruption.^[1]

Word family

• pomiciare
• pomicione
• pomiceo
• pomicioso
• pomicoso

Related words

• spuma
• Latin pumex
• French ponce

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3010
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli