spermaceti
English
Etymology
From Latin sperma (“sperm”) + Latin cētī (“of the whale”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌspɜːməˈsiːti/
- (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 57395299:
- 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
- spermaceti organ
Translations
wax obtained from the head of sperm whale
|
References
- Meredith, L. P. (1872), “Spermaceti”, in Every-Day Errors of Speech, Philadelphia: J.P. Lippincott & Co., page 42.
Further reading
spermaceti on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Anagrams
- imprecates
French
Noun
spermaceti m (plural spermacetis)
- spermaceti
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
- spermaceti
Descendants
- → Turkish: ispermeçet
Further reading
spermaceti in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana