spumă

Forms

spumă f (plural spume)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin spūma (“foam”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Latin word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *(s)poHy-mos, or in de Vaan's notation *spoHi-m- (“foam”), with cognates such as Old English fām.^[6][1]

It survives in Aromanian spumã and Megleno-Romanian spumă.^[4][7][8] The Romance cognates are Italian spuma, Spanish espuma and Portuguese espuma, and Ciorănescu compares Albanian skumbë.^[4][9] Pușcariu notes that most other Romance languages use a word taken from Old High German scum instead, as in French écume.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the word from Coresi's Gospel book of 1561, where the possessed boy of Mark 9:20 falls and rolls on the ground, „cura-i spumele” “his foam flowing”.^[5] MDA2 gives Coresi's homily book of 1581.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Besides the foam on a liquid, the word has long named the froth at the mouth and the sweat on a horse: Tiktin quotes Eminescu's horse standing „în spume” “covered in foam”, and a face spume la gură “to foam at the mouth” means to be in a rage.^[5][3] The scum skimmed off a boiling dish gave a figurative sense “dregs of society”, which Eminescu used (spumă înveninată).^[11] The opposite figurative sense, “the best, the cream of something”, is in DEX.^[3]

Spumă de mare “meerschaum” was used for pipes in the 19th century;^[4][12] Ciorănescu holds that it is not from French, though it first appears in Budai-Deleanu.^[4][12] Among the derivatives, the verb spuma may continue Latin spūmō, and Ciorănescu takes spumega as formed on it with an expressive suffix, finding uncertain the blend with fumega that Pușcariu, Tiktin and Candrea proposed.^[4][13] Spumegător came to mean “pirate” in Ion Ghica, translating French écumeur des mers.^[4]

Timeline

• 1561 – spumele in Coresi's Gospel book, the first record.^[5]
• 1581 – in Coresi's homily book.^[2]
• 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible.^[14]
• 1825 – spumă de mare “meerschaum” in the Lexicon of Buda.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. foam: a whitish layer of bubbles on the surface of a liquid that is stirred;^[3][1] (chemistry) a dispersion of gas bubbles in a liquid.^[3][1]
2. (figurative) The best or choicest part of something.^[3]
3. The scum that rises on food while it boils or ferments.^[3]
4. Lather of soap, sweat or saliva;^[3][15] a face spume la gură “to foam at the mouth”, to be furious.^[3][15]
5. (in the compound spumă-de-mare) pumice.^[3][2]

Word family

• spuma
• spumătoare
• spumos
• spumega
• spumegător
• înspumat

Related words

• Aromanian spumã
• Latin spūma

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 965
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1043
4. ^ a b c d e f g Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. spumă
5. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. spumă
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 970
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 272
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8189
10. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 149
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1234
12. ^ a b c Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 664
13. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8190
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Luke 9:39
15. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. spumă