Det är skillnad på en svamp och en svamp

Kom med, nu ska vi gå ut på tramp,
gå ut på tramp, gå plocka svamp, ska plocka svamp.
Det är så roligt i skogen gå,
i skogen gå, i skogen gå och
leta rätt på de svampar små, svampar små.

Karl Johan står där så kort och tjock,
så kort och tjock, så kort och tjock,
med mörkbrun hätta och snövit rock,
och snövit rock, och snövit rock.
Grönkremla, smörsopp och champinjon
och champinjon, och champinjon,
och fjällskivling stolt som en hög baron
hög baron.

Där har vi taggsvamp och kantarell,
och kantarell, och kantarell,
och flugsvamp, nej, han är inte snäll,
är inte snäll, är inte snäll.
Nu har vi korgarna fulla fått,
vi fulla fått, vi fulla fått,
nu lagar mamma oss något gått,
riktigt gott.
                    Felix Körling

Young girl gathering mushrooms in the woods and a 

wood goblin with berry bushes and mushrooms, 1899 

Maria Yakunchikova 

svamp subst. ~en ~ar   ORDLED: svamp-en

1 (typ av) kryptogam bålväxt som saknar klorofyll och lever på växter, djur och människor som parasit el. på multnande växtmaterial som saprofyt {→alg, lav}: algsvamp; jästsvamp; mögelsvamp; rostsvamp; slemsvamp; de enklaste ~arna är encelliga men flertalet är flercelliga

HIST.: sedan yngre fornsvensk tid; fornsv. svamper; nära besl. med sopp; jfr även sump

”She swept up the stones, took them to the washstand and thrust them into her sponge bag and rammed her sponge and nail brush down on top of them. ”

                                Agatha Christie. ”Cat Among the Pigeons

Eftersom det är Dame Agathas födelsedag i dag, så hämtar jag mitt exempel från en av hennes böcker.

Jag undrar om gummipåsar för tvättsvampen någonsin varit vanlig i Sverige. Vi som knappast nyttjar tvättlappar, har nog aldrig slitit ut några tvättsvampar. Att tvättlappar är ovanliga här, grundar jag på att utländska gäster blir så glada när de kommer hit och det ligger ett par tvättlappar i handdukshögen — de första tvättlappar de mött i Sverige säger de.

När jag, någon gång i de yngre tonåren, läste "Cat Among the Pigeon", på svenska, minns jag att det to en stund innan jag insåg vad en svamppåse var. Enligt Merriam Webster är det "a waterproof case for holding a bath sponge and toilet articles".

Men i dag avser nog de flesta en necessär, när de (om de) talar om en sponge bag.

”Without any false modesty, Julia pulled up her skirt, rolled up her knicker leg nearly to her thigh and exposed what looked like a grey poultice attached by adhesive plaster to the upper part of her leg.

She tore off the strips of plaster, uttering an anguished “Ouch” as she did so, and freed the poultice which Poirot now perceived to be a packet enclosed in a portion of grey plastic sponge bag. Julia unwrapped it and without warning poured a heap of glittering stones on the table.”

sponge (n.)Old English sponge, spunge, from Latin spongia "a sponge," also "sea animal from which a sponge comes," from Greek spongia, related to spongos "sponge," of unknown origin. "Probably a loanword from a non-IE language, borrowed independently into Greek, Latin and Armenian in a form *sphong-" [de Vaan]. The Latin word is the source of Old Saxon spunsia, Middle Dutch spongie, Old French esponge, Spanish esponja, Italian spugna. 

In English in reference to the marine animal from 1530s. To throw in the sponge "quit, submit" (1860) is from prizefighting, in reference to the sponges used to cleanse the faces of combatants between rounds (compare later throw in the towel). Sponge-cake is attested from 1808.

Woman Washing in the Bath, c.1892 

Edgar Degas

"Sponge fingers" har jag aldrig ätit, men "sponge cake" är ju vanligt.

Plate with fruits and sponger fingers 

 Paul Cézanne

Sponge cake is a light cake made with eggs, flour and sugar, sometimes leavened with baking powder. Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated during the Renaissance, possibly in Spain. The sponge cake is thought to be one of the first of the non-yeasted cakes, and the earliest attested sponge cake recipe in English is found in a book by the English poet Gervase Markham, The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman (1615). Still, the cake was much more like a cookie: thin and crispy. Sponge cakes became the cake recognized today when bakers started using beaten eggs as a rising agent in the mid 18th century. The Victorian creation of baking powder by English food manufacturer Alfred Bird in 1843 enabled the sponge to rise higher than cakes made previously, resulting in the Victoria sponge.

från Wikipedia

Så har vi ju det engelska ordet "swamp"...

swamp (n.)

c. 1500 (implied in swampwatyr "swamp-water"), of uncertain origin, perhaps [Barnhart] a dialectal survival from an Old English cognate of Old Norse svöppr "sponge, fungus," from Proto-Germanic *swampuz; but traditionally connected with Middle English sompe "morass, swamp," which probably is from Middle Dutch somp or Middle Low German sump "swamp" (see sump). All of these likely are ultimately related to each other, from PIE *swombho- "spongy; mushroom," via the notion of "spongy ground."

[B]y swamps then in general is to be understood any low grounds subject to inundations, distinguished from marshes, in having a large growth of timber, and much underwood, canes, reeds, wythes, vines, briers, and such like, so matted together, that they are in a great measure impenetrable to man or beast .... [Bernard Romans, "A Concise History of East and West Florida," 1775]

More popular in U.S. (swamp (n.) by itself is first attested 1624 in Capt. John Smith's description of Virginia). Swamp-oak is from 1680s, American English. Swamp Yankee "rural, rustic New Englander" is attested from 1941. Thornton's "American Glossary" (1912) has swamp-angel "dweller in a swamp," swamp-law "might makes right."

Mushrooms

Gavriil Kondratenko 

mushroom (n.)

a word applied at first to almost any of the larger fungi but later to the agaricoid fungi and especially the edible varieties, mid-15c., muscheron, musseroun (attested 1327 as a surname, John Mussheron), from Anglo-French musherun, Old French meisseron (11c., Modern French mousseron), perhaps from Late Latin mussirionem (nominative mussirio), though this might as well be borrowed from French.

Barnhart says "of uncertain origin." Klein calls it "a word of pre-Latin origin, used in the North of France;" OED says it usually is held to be a derivative of French mousse "moss" (from Germanic), and Weekley agrees, saying it is properly "applied to variety which grows in moss," but Klein says they have "nothing in common." For the final -m Weekley refers to grogram, vellum, venom. Modern spelling is from 1560s.

Used figuratively for something or someone that makes a sudden appearance in full form from 1590s, especially an upstart person or family, one who rises rapidly from a low station in life. In reference to the shape of clouds that rise upward and outward after explosions, etc., it is attested from 1916, though the actual phrase mushroom cloud does not appear until 1955.

OK, jag ger mig nu.