different between spongy vs firm

English

Alternative forms

• spongey

Etymology

sponge +? -y

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sp?nd?i/

Adjective

spongy (comparative spongier, superlative spongiest)

1. Having the characteristics of a sponge, namely being absorbent, squishy or porous.
   • c. 1601, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act II, Scene 2,^[1]

     Though no man lesser fears the Greeks than I

     As far as toucheth my particular,

     Yet, dread Priam,

     There is no lady of more softer bowels,

     More spongy to suck in the sense of fear,

     More ready to cry out 'Who knows what follows?'

     Than Hector is:

   • 1861, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, Boston: Ticknor & Fields, Volume 2, Chapter 28, p. 246,^[2]

     […] there were times when she would lie looking at her, with such a still, watchful, almost dangerous expression, that Helen would sigh, and change her place, as persons do whose breath some cunning orator had been sucking out of them with his spongy eloquence, so that, when he stops, they must get some air and stir about, or they feel as if they should be half-smothered and palsied.
2. Wet; drenched; soaked and soft, like sponge; rainy.
   • c. 1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act IV, Scene 1,^[3]

     Thy banks with pioned and twilled brims,

     Which spongy April at thy hest betrims,

   • 1633, John Donne, “The Indifferent” in Poems, London: John Marriot, p. 200,^[4]

     Her who still weepes with spungie eyes,

     And her who is dry corke, and never cries;

     I can love her, and her, and you and you,

     I can love any, so she be not true.

   • 1850, Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Chapter 3,^[5]

     […] I was quite tired, and very glad, when we saw Yarmouth. It looked rather spongy and soppy, I thought, as I carried my eye over the great dull waste that lay across the river […]

   • 1961, Bernard Malamud, A New Life, Penguin, 1968, p. 21,^[6]

     It rains […] most of the fall and winter and much of the spring. It’s a spongy sky you’ll be wearing on your head.

3. (slang) Drunk.

Synonyms

• (characteristics of a sponge): spongelike
• (soaked and soft): See Thesaurus:wet
• (drunk): See Thesaurus:drunk

Derived terms

• spongily
• sponginess
• spongy lead
• spongy platinum

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /f??m/, [f?m]
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /f??m/
• Rhymes: -??(?)m

Etymology 1

From Italian firma (“signature”), from firmare (“to sign”), from Latin firmare (“to make firm, to confirm (by signature)”), from firmus (“firm, stable”). The contemporary sense developed in the 18th century simultaneously with German Firma (“business, name of business”). There are conflicting statements in the literature as to which of the two languages influenced which.

Noun

firm (plural firms)

1. (Britain, business) A business partnership; the name under which it trades.
2. (business, economics) A business enterprise, however organized.
3. (slang) A criminal gang, especially based around football hooliganism.

Derived terms

• The Firm

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English ferme, from Old French ferme, from Latin firmus (“strong, steady”). Doublet of dharma.

Adjective

firm (comparative firmer, superlative firmest)

1. Steadfast, secure, solid (in position)

2. Fixed (in opinion)
   • He was firm that selling his company would a good choice and didn't let anyone talk him out of it.
3. Durable, rigid (material state)

   firm flesh; firm muscles, firm wood; firm land (i.e. not soft and marshy)

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

firm (third-person singular simple present firms, present participle firming, simple past and past participle firmed)

1. (transitive) To make firm or strong; fix securely.
2. (transitive) To make compact or resistant to pressure; solidify.
3. (intransitive) To become firm; stabilise.
4. (intransitive) To improve after decline.
5. (intransitive, Australia) To shorten (of betting odds).
6. (transitive, Britain, slang) To select (a higher education institution) as one's preferred choice, so as to enrol automatically if one's grades match the conditional offer.

Translations

Further reading

• Firm in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• FRIM, fMRI, frim

German

Etymology

From Latin firmus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f??m/

Adjective

firm (comparative firmer, superlative am firmsten)

1. (somewhat dated) experienced, well versed

Declension

Further reading

• “firm” in Duden online

Polish

Noun

firm f

1. genitive plural of firma

Zoogocho Zapotec

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Spanish firma.

Noun

firm

1. signature

Derived terms

• chgo?o firm
• cho?o firm

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Spanish firme.

Adjective

firm

1. firm, fixed

References

• Long C., Rebecca; Cruz M., Sofronio (2000) Diccionario zapoteco de San Bartolomé Zoogocho, Oaxaca (Serie de vocabularios y diccionarios indígenas “Mariano Silva y Aceves”; 38)?^[2] (in Spanish), second electronic edition, Coyoacán, D.F.: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, A.C., pages 220