Sponge

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /spʌnd͡ʒ/

Definitions

1. A soft, porous material used for soaking up liquids or cleaning ; a simple aquatic animal with a porous body attached to surfaces in water ; to absorb or take in liquid or moisture like a cleaning tool
2. A material made of natural or synthetic pores that easily holds liquid ; a primitive sea creature with a skeleton composed of spicules or fibers ; to soak up or wipe surfaces by absorbing moisture efficiently
3. An item characterized by a network of holes suited for soaking fluids ; an invertebrate animal filtering water for food and oxygen ; to soak or absorb liquid or substance from a surface by contact

Etymology: The sea sponge was once a living animal, and the Greeks knew it as a creature before they knew it as a bath accessory. The Ancient Greek "spóngos" named the porous skeleton of these marine animals, and "spongiá" was its related form, which the Romans borrowed as "spongia." Its English path ran through Old English "spunge," so the word has been in the language for well over a thousand years, long before anyone thought of sponges as cleaning tools. English also had a native word for the same thing. Old English "swamm" meant a fungus or sponge, and it was displaced by the borrowed term. That replacement is a reminder that the sea sponge's porous body reminded speakers of spongy growths on land, and the older word lingered in the vocabulary of mushrooms rather than the vocabulary of the sea.

Synonyms: absorbent, pad, sorbent

Antonyms: dry