Word of the Day
: May 25, 2014spume
playWhat It Means
: frothy matter on liquids : foam, scum
spume in Context
The spume and sea spray from the rising tide made the rocks along the beach slick and treacherous.
"The ship yawns and yaws with each enormous wave that pounds the side of the boat, sending a cloud of spume and spray high into the air." - From an article by Ben Fogle in The Sunday Telegraph (London), January 12, 2014
Did You Know?
"Spume" is a word for froth or foam that has been a part of the English lexicon for more than 600 years. An early example is found in a 14th-century quotation from the English poet John Gower: "She set a cauldron on the fire … and let it boil in such a plight, till that she saw the spume [was] white." "Spume" was borrowed from Anglo-French "espume" or "spume," and can be traced further back to Latin "spuma." "Spuma" is also akin to Old English "fām," a word that is the ancestor of the current English word "foam," a synonym of "spume." Another relative of "spuma" is "pumex," the Latin word for pumice, a volcanic rock with a somewhat foamy appearance that is formed from rapidly cooling, frothy lava.
Test Your Vocabulary with M-W Quizzes
Test Your Memory
What 6-letter word begins with "s" and completes this sentence from a former Word of the Day piece: "The TV star posted an online photo of herself, looking __________ in a figure-hugging dress"? The answer is …
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