Etymologically
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spumosus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [spuːˈmoː.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [spuˈmɔː.s̬us][1]

Forms

spūmōsus (feminine spūmōsa, neuter spūmōsum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin spūma (“foam”) + -ōsus.[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Catullus,[4] who speaks of the foam-covered shore (spūmōsa lītora).[2][5]

Semantic evolution

A poetic word that later passed into prose,[5] it was used of foaming rivers and waves by Virgil, Ovid and Lucan,[2][5] and Statius uses it of the roaring of the Anio and calls the sea goddess Doris foamy.[2] Persius calls the words arma virum frothy (spūmōsum), of an inflated style.[2][3] In medical writing it described frothy matter: Pliny the Elder gives some egg-laying animals a frothy lung, and Scribonius Largus uses the neuter plural as a noun for frothy matter brought up by patients;[2][3] Caelius Aurelianus has the comparative spūmōsior.[2][3]

Medieval writers kept both uses, for foaming seas and for frothy bodily fluids such as saliva.[6]

Timeline

  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of a foam-covered shore.[2][4]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of foaming rivers.[2][4]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of waves.[2][4]
  • 34–62 AD – Persius uses it of bombastic verse.[2][4]
  • 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus has the comparative.[3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Foaming, frothy.[2][5]
  2. Covered with foam.[2]
  3. Containing a frothy liquid.[2]
  4. (figurative, of style) Frothy, bombastic.[2][3]

Noun

  1. (neuter plural) Frothy matter brought up or passed by the sick.[2][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ 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