σομφός

Seemingly related to Proto-Germanic *swammaz (“sponge; mushroom, fungus”), with which it is traditionally derived from Proto-Indo-European *swombʰ- (“sponge; tree-fungus”), but the Greek probably cannot be of inherited Indo-European origin given its lack of the expected shift *s- > *h-. According to Beekes, it is probably of substrate or wanderwort origin and related to similar words like Ancient Greek σπόγγος (spóngos, “sponge”), Latin fungus (“mushroom, fungus”) and Old Armenian սունկն (sunkn, “tree fungus”).

σομφός • (somphós) m (feminine σομφή, neuter σομφόν); first/second declension

1. spongy, porous, full of tiny pores that allow fluids or gasses to pass through

   Synonyms: πολῠ́τρητος (polútrētos), χαῦνος (khaûnos)

• “σομφός”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• σομφός in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN