esponsa

Old Galician-Portuguese

Alternative forms

• sponssa, sponia, sponja

Etymology

Semi-learned borrowing from Latin spongia, borrowed from Ancient Greek σπογγῐᾱ́ (spongĭā́), from σπόγγος (spóngos) + -ιά (-iá). Doublet of espunlha.

Noun

esponsa f (plural *esponsas)

1. sponge
   • c. 1409-1420, chapter III, in Álvaro Eans das Eiras, transl., Tratado de Albeitaria, page 4, translation of De Medicina Equorum by Giordano Ruffo:

     […] et estancado o sange pom ençima do figo esponsa do mar et apretaa ben con huun pano de lino et legao ben et non lle tollas esta sponssa do mar ataa que seia o figo todo comesto et rraudo da huña […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

• Fala: esponja
• Galician: esponxa
• Portuguese: esponja (see there for further descendants)

References

• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “esponsa”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2020–2026), “esponja”, in Vocabulário histórico-cronológico do português medieval [Historical and chronological vocabulary of Medieval Portuguese] (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa