loofah

English

Wikispecies

A loofah (the sponge)

Alternative forms

• loofa, luffa

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic لُوفَة (lūfa).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈluːfə/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːfə

Noun

loofah (plural loofahs)

1. Any of several tropical vines of the genus Luffa, having almost cylindrical fruit with a spongy, fibrous interior; the dishcloth gourd.
2. The dried fibrous interior of such a plant, used as a sponge for bathing.
3. Any bath sponge; a sponge on a handle.

Derived terms

• angled loofah (Luffa acutangula)
• smooth loofah

 

Translations

tropical vine

• Arabic: لِيف (ar) m (līf), لُوف m (lūf)
• Azerbaijani: luffa
• Catalan: luffa f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 水瓜 (seoi² gwaa¹) (smooth), 勝瓜／胜瓜 (sing³ gwaa¹) (angled)

  Hokkien: 竹篙瓜 (tek-ko-koe), 米管瓜 (bí-kńg-koe), 鼠瓜 (chhí-koe, chhú-koe), 水瓜 (chúi-koe), 布瓜 (pò͘-koe)

  Mandarin: 絲瓜／丝瓜 (zh) (sīguā)

• Czech: lufa f
• Dutch: luffa (nl)
• Esperanto: lufo
• Estonian: käsnkõrvits
• Finnish: pesusienikurkku (fi)
• French: loofa (fr) m, luffa (fr) m
• Galician: luffa, estropallos
• German: Luffa
• Hausa: soso
• Hindi: तुरई (hi) f (turaī)
• Indonesian: luffa
• Irish: lúfach
• Italian: luffa (it) f
• Japanese: 糸瓜 (ja) (ヘチマ, hechima), 天糸瓜 (ヘチマ, hechima)
• Kazakh: сәнқабақ (sänqabaq)
• Khmer: ននោង (km) (nɔnoong)
• Kongo: nsana
• Korean: 수세미 (susemi)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: لفکە (lifke)

• Malay: petola
• Malayalam: പീച്ചിംഗ (pīcciṅga)
• Persian: پیلگوش (pilguš)
• Polish: trukwa f
• Punjabi: ਤੋਰੀ (pa) f (torī)
• Romanian: lufa f
• Russian: лю́фа́ (ru) f (ljúfá), лю́ффа (ru) f (ljúffa), лу́ффа (ru) f (lúffa)
• Spanish: estropajo (es) m, lufa (es) f,
• Swahili: mdodoki
• Swedish: luffasläktet
• Thai: บวบ (th) (bùuap)
• Vietnamese: chi mướp

dried fibrous interior used as a sponge

• Arabic: لِيف (ar) m (līf), لُوف m (lūf)

  Egyptian Arabic: ليفه f (līfa), ليف pl (līf)

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 絲瓜絡／丝瓜络 (zh) (sīguāluò)

• Finnish: pesusieni (fi)
• German: Luffaschwamm m
• Hungarian: luffaszivacs
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: لفکە (lifke)

• Russian: моча́лка (ru) f (močálka)
• Turkish: lif (tr)

Verb

loofah (third-person singular simple present loofahs, present participle loofahing, simple past and past participle loofahed)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To clean or scrub with a loofah.
   • 2006, Scott Dikkers, Peter Hilleren, Destined for Destiny, page 63:

     And she took good care of my feet, massaging them and loofahing the calluses away.

   • 2012, Jill Smolinski, Objects of My Affection:

     I may have snuck in showering myself—plus shaving, loofahing, hair blow-drying, reapplying makeup, changing my outfit five times, and winding up in what I started out with.

References

• “loofah”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Foolah