spongia

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈspɔŋ.ɡi.a]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈspɔn̠ʲ.d͡ʒi.a]^[1]

Forms

spongia f (genitive spongiae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek σπογγιά (spongiá, “sponge”),^[2][3][1] from σπόγγος (spóngos, “sponge”), which Etymonline calls of unknown origin.^[4] Wiktionary takes fungus as a doublet, both borrowed from the same substrate source.^[1] Variant spellings are spongea and sphongia.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato, in On Agriculture, says to wipe hams with a sponge on the third day.^[2] Köbler dates Cato 234–149 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It was the sponge, both as a sea animal and for household uses: Cicero recalls blood wiped from the Forum with sponges.^[2] Pliny the Elder uses it of a gall on wild roses and of a spongy fungus.^[2] Livy uses it of the padded armour of gladiators, and Columella and Pliny of the tangled root of asparagus.^[6] Isidore of Seville uses it of pumice.^[7][1]

Medieval writers used it of a piece of sponge.^[8] English sponge is already in Old English, from Latin.^[4]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of a sponge.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of sponges in the Forum.^[2][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of gladiators' armour.^[6][5]
• Old English – Borrowed as sponge.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sponge.^[2][9]
2. A spongy growth: a rose gall; a fungus.^[2]
3. Padded armour of a gladiator.^[6]
4. The root of asparagus.^[6]
5. Pumice.^[7][1]

Word family

• spongiārius
• spongiola
• spongiōsus
• spongius
• spongizo
• spongiō

Related words

• xylospongium
• fungus
• English sponge

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
8. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press