esponsa

Old Galician-Portuguese

Alternative forms

• sponssa, sponia, sponja

Etymology

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

Noun

esponsa f (plural *esponsass)

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

     […] 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

• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “spons+a”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antônio Geraldo da Cunha (2020–2025) “esponja”, in Vocabulário histórico-cronológico do Português Medieval (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa