November 25, 2006, 13:05
zmježdpomace, pumice
During the course of today's chat, I used (and misspelled) the word
pomace. I wondered if it was related to
pumice.
Pomace is from Medieval
pōmācium 'cider' from Vulgar Latin
pōma 'apple'.
Pumice is from Late Latin
pōmex from Latin
pūmex, variant of
spūma 'foam'. The context was about the Italian beverage
grappa 'a kind of brandy' (distilled from the pomace left over from winemaking).
November 25, 2006, 18:33
SeanahanThere are a lot of words in English which appear similar, but come from Latin roots. I'm drawing a blank right now, but I'm sure someone will chime in with a couple.
November 25, 2006, 20:20
KallehSean, you really should join us on a chat sometime.
Zmj, I found your etymology for
pumice (online AHD). However, I also found this, which seems to me to be different, though I am not always good at understanding some of the abbreviations associated with etymologies:
"Origin: bef. 1000; < L pūmic-, s. of pūmex pumice stone; r. ME pomis(e), pomish(e), pomice < MF pomis < L; cf. OE pumic- (< L), in pumicstān pumice stone; see pounce3"
That would tell me that
pumice comes from the Latin word for stone, and in that etymology (Random House Unabridged Dictionary, online) it says nothing of being a variant of
spuma 'foam.'
November 26, 2006, 04:10
arnieKalleh,
I'd suggest your etymology doesn't go back far enough. The Romans would of course be familiar with pumice, with Mount Vesuvius and other volcanoes nearby, so they had their own word. Your dictionary doesn't give the etymology of their word,
pomex.
The Online Etymology Dictionary says '... from PIE *poimo-, with connotations of "foam, froth." '
November 26, 2006, 06:35
zmježdOne of my Latin etymological dictioanries repeats that
pūmex variant of
spūma. Pokorny has two entries for the PIE roots *
(s)p(h)jēu- (/
(s)pjū-,
(s)pīw-) 'to spew, spit' whence Latin
spuo 'to spew, spit' (which some connect with
spūma) and
(s)poimno- 'foam, froth; spray, spume'
pūmex and
spūma. The only other languages cited for related words in the latter entry are Ossetic (a kind of Persian), English
foam, Old Prussian (an extinct Baltic language), and Old Church Slavonic.
November 26, 2006, 20:07
KallehYes, I see you are correct, Arnie.
What is "Old Church Slavonic?"
November 26, 2006, 22:04
zmježd What is "Old Church Slavonic?"It's the Slavic language into which the bible was first translated. It is sometimes called Old Bulgarian. As the oldest written Slavic language, it is important for the historical study of Slavic languages.