Etymologically
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spongia

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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
  • 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