English
tufa
Tufa comes from Italian tufo ‘tuff’, and goes back to Latin tōfus.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtōfus‘tuff’
- Italianc. 1300–presenttufo‘tuff’
- Englishearliest quotation 1993tufa
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtōfus‘tuff’
- Italianc. 1300–presenttufo‘tuff’
- Englishearliest quotation 1993tufa
Earliest quotation: 1993, George V. Benson, Meeting Highlights: “B.J. Szabo presented the results of a survey of…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *tewh₂- ‘to swell’
butter, tomb, tumor, soma, tumour, trifle, tyrosine, tumultuous, tumult, madrasa, turgid, tubercle, 42 more
through Proto-Italic *tūβos
through Italian tufo ‘tuff’
Today it means
noun Calcareous lime deposited by precipitation from a body of water, such as a hot spring.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin tōfus / tufa