spermaceti
English
Etymology
From Latin sperma (“sperm”) + Latin cētī (“of the whale”, genitive of cētus).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌspɜːməˈsiːti/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /spɚməˈsiːti/, /spɚməˈsɛti/, (obsolete, proscribed) /spɚməˈsɪti/[1]
Noun
spermaceti (uncountable)
- A wax obtained from the head of sperm whales and used to make cosmetics, etc.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 77, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
- Moreover, as that of Heidelburgh was always replenished with the most excellent of the wines of the Rhenish valleys, so the tun of the whale contains by far the most precious of all his oily vintages; namely, the highly-prized spermaceti, in its absolutely pure, limpid, and odoriferous state.
Derived terms
Translations
wax obtained from the head of sperm whale
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References
- ^ Meredith, L. P. (1872) “Spermaceti”, in Every-Day Errors of Speech[1], Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., page 42.
Further reading
- spermaceti on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Anagrams
French
Noun
spermaceti m (plural spermacetis)
Further reading
- “spermaceti”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Italian
Etymology
From Latin sperma (“sperm”) + Latin cētī (“of the whale”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /sper.maˈt͡ʃɛ.ti/
- Rhymes: -ɛti
- Hyphenation: sper‧ma‧cè‧ti
Noun
spermaceti m
Descendants
- → Turkish: ispermeçet
Further reading
spermaceti in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana