Lathers

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To produce a thick foam by mixing a cleansing agent with water through active rubbing or agitation
2. To generate a frothy mixture characterized by suds by vigorously applying a soapy substance with water
3. To create a rich, bubbly foam by actively stirring or rubbing a soapy agent into water

Etymology: Long before it meant a bubbly mass on a bath or a shaving brush, "lather" was the name for a cleansing substance itself. The Old English "lēaþor" referred to a kind of nitre, a mineral salt used for soap and washing, and the word's ancestors carried the idea of "that which is used for washing." Its relatives reach across Europe and beyond: Latin "lavō" ("to wash"), Ancient Greek "loutrón" ("a bath"), and Old Irish "loathar" ("wash-basin") all grow from the same ancient root. The foam came later. Over time the word shifted from the washing agent to the froth it produced, so that a lather became the sudsy result rather than the ingredient that made it. The verb has a separate Old English ancestor, "līeþran," meaning "to soap, wash," which entered the same family of meanings and survives today as "to lather," used of both soap and, more loosely, of a horse sweating into foam.

Synonyms: foams, froths