despumo
Pronunciation
Forms
dēspūmō (present infinitive dēspūmāre, perfect active dēspūmāvī, supine dēspūmātum); first conjugation[1] The spelling dispūmō also occurs, and is the commoner one in medieval texts.[2][3]
Etymology
It is from Latin dē- + spūmō (“to foam, froth”).[4][1] The TLL derives it either from the verb or directly from the noun spūma (“foam”).[2] De Vaan traces that noun to Proto-Italic *spoimā- (“foam”) and Proto-Indo-European *spoHi-m- (or *speh₃i-m-), and compares Old English fām (“foam”), Old High German feim (“foam”) and Lithuanian spáinė (“foam”).[5]
Earliest recorded meaning
The TLL records it from Virgil on,[2] who in the Georgics uses it of boiling down sweet must and skimming the surging liquid in the bronze pot with leaves.[4][2]
Semantic evolution
Lewis & Short think it was perhaps not used before Augustus.[6] Columella and Pliny the Elder use it of skimming honey, and Manilius of must from pressed grapes.[4][6] By extension Persius uses it of sleeping off untamed Falernian wine, and Vitruvius and Pliny of rubbing down the surface of a pavement with a whetstone.[4][6][7]
Used intransitively, it meant to throw off foam: Lucan has the moon dropping foam onto the grass.[4][8] Seneca applies it to things that stop foaming and settle, such as excessive heat of temper, grief once some tears have been shed, and an age of life that has worked off its vices.[4][7] Vegetius uses it of bleeding an animal,[7][8] Jerome has the participle of someone whose ferment has passed,[9] and the Vulgate (Jude 13) speaks of waves foaming out their own shame.[6] Medieval writers used it in recipes for skimming liquids, for whipping into foam, and figuratively for satisfying or stirring up.[3]
Timeline
- 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of skimming boiling must.[2][4][10]
- 1st century AD – Manilius and Columella use it of must and honey.[4][10]
- 34–62 AD – Persius uses it of sleeping off wine.[4][10]
- 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it intransitively, of passion settling down.[4][10]
- 39–65 AD – Lucan has the moon shedding foam on the grass.[4][10]
- c. 400 AD – Vegetius uses it of bleeding an animal.[7][10]
Meanings
Verb
- To skim the froth off (a liquid); to draw foam from.[4][6]
- To let (wine) stop foaming, sleep off.[4][9]
- To remove surface deposits from; to rub down, polish (a pavement).[4][6]
- (intransitive) To give off or deposit foam.[4][6]
- (intransitive, figurative) To stop foaming, settle down, abate.[4][6]
- (Late Latin) To bleed (an animal).[7][8]
- (Medieval Latin) To whip into foam;[3] (figurative) to satisfy, allay; to stir up.[3]
Word family
- dēspūmātiō
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
- ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
- ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
- ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
- ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de