Word of the Day

: May 25, 2014

spume

noun SPYOOM

What 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.