pumex

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *(s)poH(y)- (“foam”). Related to spūma.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈpuː.meks/, [ˈpuːmɛks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpu.meks/, [ˈpuːmeks]

Noun

pūmex m or f (genitive pūmicis); third declension

1. a pumice stone
2. pumice
3. any porous rock

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	pūmex	pūmicēs
genitive	pūmicis	pūmicum
dative	pūmicī	pūmicibus
accusative	pūmicem	pūmicēs
ablative	pūmice	pūmicibus
vocative	pūmex	pūmicēs

Descendants

• French: ponce
  • → English: pounce
• Galician: pómes
• Italian: pomice
• Occitan: pomessa
• Portuguese: pomes
• Romanian: ponce
• Sicilian: pùmici
• Spanish: pómez
• → English: pumice
• → Proto-West Germanic: *pumic (see there for further descendants)
• → Polish: pumeks

References

• “pumex”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pumex”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• pumex in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 510