vaseline

Coined by American chemist Robert Augustus Chesebrough in 1872, from German Wasser (“water”) +‎ Ancient Greek ἔλαιον (élaion, “oil”) +‎ -ine.^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ˈvæsəliːn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

vaseline (countable and uncountable, plural vaselines)

1. Petroleum jelly.
   • 1930, Aldous Huxley, Brief Candles:

     Hearts of putty, hearts of vaseline...

2. Any particular kind of petroleum jelly or of any similar lubricant.
   • 1882, Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry:

     A Russian vaseline has been lately added to the many kinds of vaseline found in […]

3. (informal) Ellipsis of Vaseline glass, or the coloring used in making it.

• E905b when used as a food additive

• Vaseline glass

vaseline (third-person singular simple present vaselines, present participle vaselining, simple past and past participle vaselined)

1. To lubricate with vaseline.

   Even at this late date, vaselining will preserve the best of these leathers.

• leave-ins

Borrowed from English. Genericized trademark.

• IPA^(key): /vaz.lin/

• Audio:

  (file)

vaseline f (uncountable)

1. vaseline

• → Turkish: vazelin

• “vaseline”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.