spuma

Forms

spuma f (plural spume)^[1]

Etymology

DELI calls it a learned word: it is borrowed from Latin spūma (“foam”), and spumare and spumoso continue its derivatives spūmō (“to foam”) and spūmōsus.^[2] Wiktionary treats it as inherited.^[1] The popular Romance outcomes are Spanish espuma, Portuguese espuma, Romanian spumă and Sardinian ispuma;^[3][4][5] French replaced the word with French écume.^[3][4][5] Venetian spiuma and the Friulian and Ladin forms may continue a diminutive *spūmula.^[5]

The Latin word has relatives across Indo-European, with and without the initial s-: Old English fām (English foam), Old High German feim and Lithuanian spáinė.^[3][6][7] The same mobile s- appears in Latin pūmex (“pumice”), the source of pomice.^[3][6] De Vaan reconstructs a root Proto-Indo-European *spoHi- “foam”, extended with two different suffixes.^[6] Devoto–Oli, Sabatini–Coletti and Treccani derive the Latin noun from spuō (“to spit”) instead.^[8][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is Lancia's Florentine translation of the Aeneid, 1316, in the sense of the foam on the surface of the sea.^[11] GRADIT and Nocentini date the word to the second half of the 13th century, and DEI has it in Old Venetian in the 14th century.^[12][3][5] DELI's first record is later, Ariosto's Orlando furioso (1532), with a river white with foam.^[2][13]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian spuma was also the froth that forms at the mouth, and spuma d'argento was litharge.^[11] Prati notes that earlier writers seldom used it.^[14] It remains more literary than schiuma.^[15] Poets used it for the sea and its waves, and for the myth of Aphrodite born from the foam.^[13]

DEI dates the sense of a light dish of minced meat or fish, now a mousse, to the 19th century.^[5] Other modern senses are spuma di mare for sepiolite and the trade name of a soft drink of sparkling water and flavourings.^[8][15] In winemaking, presa di spuma is the second fermentation that makes spumante.^[15]

Timeline

• 1316 – Lancia's translation of the Aeneid has spuma, the foam of the sea.^[11]
• About 1336 – Boccaccio uses spumante “foaming”.^[2]
• Before 1375 – Boccaccio uses spumoso.^[2]
• 1532 – Ariosto's Orlando furioso has the word.^[2]
• 1666 – F. Redi uses spumeggiare.^[2]
• 1805 – Spuma marina is recorded.^[5]
• 1891 – Spumone is recorded as a dessert.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. foam, froth: the soft mass of air bubbles on the surface of a liquid; the same as schiuma, with a more literary tone: la spuma dei cavalloni.^{[12][8][9][15]}
2. A soft drink of sparkling water, sugar and flavourings: Ordinò una spuma al chinotto.^{[12][8][9][15]}
3. (cooking) A mousse of fish, meat or other ingredients: spuma di salmone.^{[12][8][15][16]}
4. (mineralogy) spuma di mare: sepiolite, meerschaum.^{[8][17][15][16]}

Word family

• spumante
• spumare
• spumeggiare
• spumeggiante
• spumone
• spumoso
• spumosità
• spumino

Related words

• pomice
• Latin spuma
• Spanish espuma

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include spuma di mare (sepiolite), spuma di primavera (the froth produced by some insects, or in Zingarelli a blue-green alga) and presa di spuma in winemaking.^[12][15]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3605
6. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
11. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
14. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 943
15. ^ a b c d e f g h Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
17. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli