Etymology

foam

F4O1A1M3

Today it means: A substance composed of a large collection of bubbles or their solidified remains, especially Full definition →

Middle English fom ← Old English fām ← Proto-West Germanic *faim
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · inherited from*(s)poHy-m-os
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*faimaz
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*faim
  4. Old English · inherited fromfām
  5. Middle English · inherited fromfom
  6. English todayfoam

From Middle English fom, foom, from Old English fām, from Proto-West Germanic *faim, from Proto-Germanic *faimaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)poHy-m-os, from *(s)poH(y)- (“foam”). Cognate with German Feim (“foam”), Latin spūma (“foam”), Latin pūmex (“pumice”), Sanskrit फेन (phéna, “foam”), possibly Northern Kurdish fê (“epilepsy”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.