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• spumescence •

Pronunciation: spyu-mes-ens • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, mass (no plural)

Meaning: Frothiness, foaminess, sudsiness, bubbliness.

Notes: This word is the noun for the adjective spumescent "bubbly, frothy". At the bottom of spumescent lies spume "foam, froth", especially the foam on the breaking waves of the sea. Remember that the initial vowel is pronounced [yu], not simply . (I am currently–May 2015–on my way to Topsail Island, North Carolina, where I plan to enjoy the spumescence with all my family: sisters, children, and grandchildren.)

In Play: Today's Good Word is closely associated with the sea and the waves it bears: "In the moonlight Ariel's hair reminded Geoff of the spumescence of the surf at Carolina Beach and made him want to be with her there. It was a bit like an epiphany." However, the word refers to foaminess wherever it is found: "The spumescence on the dog's lips convinced Augie that he shouldn't try to pet her."

Word History: Today's Good Word came from an old Proto-Indo-European root with a Fickle S, an initial S that came and went for reasons we cannot fathom. It is there on Latin spuma, the origin of English spume, but not on Russian pena "foam" or Sanskrit pyena "foam". It also dropped off before the Germanic languages inherited it, for we don't find it in either German Feim "surf" or English foam, which share the same source as spuma. The Latin word went on to become spumante "sparkling" in Italian, the name of Italian sparkling wine (Champagne), too. Spanish and Portuguese never liked words beginning with SP, SC, or ST and, so, added an initial E to all words beginning with these clusters, e.g. espuma "foam". (Today we are grateful to the ever-bubbly Mark Bailey, one of the few Grand Panjandra of the Alpha Agora, for suggesting this sparklingly Good Word.)

Great word!

The Federal Reserve chair traditionally speaks in oracular phrases, in order to get decision makers to slow down and reflect, and to prevent the markets from a gadarene ebullition in a specific direction. Thus, in May of 2005, Chairman Greenspan warned of "froth" in the housing market, hoping to instill an ambiguous sense of caution into the economy as lenders, construction companies and home buyers pondered his metaphor and puzzled out what to do about all that frothiness.

Today the Fed has been warning that it may raise interest rates, but is vague about when it will do so, and what factors will trigger that action. Perhaps Janet Yellen, the incumbent Fed chair, should channel Greenspan and express her concern about the "spumescence" in today's equity markets. And if she succeeds in sustaining sound economic growth through interest rate management, then she'd be entitled to celebrate by breaking out a bottle of Asti-Spumante and savoring its spumescence.

Greetings.

I was taught long ago -- or at least I read -- that the "sc" particle/morpheme from Latin meant "becoming" as in a process.

So words such as "senescence," "evanescence," and today's word "spumescence" (which my spell checker rejects) denoted the beginning of something.

However, I have never found this information in a dictionary or, indeed, online. Am I just wrong?

Greeting Phil3ip, and welcome to the Agora.

According to http://www.etymonline.com, you're mostly right.

Here's their take on -escent.

Thanks very much for the quick reply. I'll certainly add etymonline to my favorites and will trust my memory for a while longer.

And welcome to the forum. Keep sharing yr insights!

PS- You can also click on the AlphaDictionary heading at the top of every page that will take you to a search field on the home page. Enter any word, and you will often find a dozen or two different dictionaries, including various forms of slang.

Apparently Spanish renders the idea of "nappy" or unruly hair of certain types as espumosa, which out of context I would have thought to be the same as spumescent.

(FYI espumosa fits me right now but I'm taking care of it in a few hours...)