Naptha

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A flammable liquid mixture of hydrocarbons derived from petroleum or coal tar used primarily as a solvent or fuel ; a light, volatile substance used in industrial processes and chemical manufacturing ; a hydrocarbon extract often employed in cleaning, thinning, and producing other chemical compounds
2. A volatile, inflammable fluid obtained from crude oil or coal tar, commonly utilized as a cleaning solvent ; a simplified petroleum derivative that serves as fuel or a chemical feedstock ; an aromatic hydrocarbon blend used in industry functions such as thinning paints or dissolving substances
3. A petroleum-based flammable solvent consisting of various hydrocarbons, widely employed for cleaning and thinning purposes ; a light fossil fuel fraction used as a raw material in chemical synthesis ; a volatile organic compound applied in manufacturing and industrial settings for its solvency and combustion properties

Etymology: Naphtha is one of those words whose history runs through several languages and several meanings. It is an old word, and its most surprising fact is that it was not originally tied to petroleum at all. Ancient writers used it for a naturally occurring bitumen, a sticky, flammable substance that seeped from the ground in places like Babylon and was valued as a fuel and an adhesive. The Greek word "naphtha" referred to this bitumen, and the Latin "naphtha" carried the same sense into medieval Europe, where it appears in alchemical and medical writing. In English the word arrived around the 1400s and kept its broad meaning of a bituminous or inflammable liquid. Later, as chemists learned to distill crude petroleum, they applied the name to the lighter fractions that came off during refining. Those fractions became the volatile solvent and fuel we know today, so the term moved from a seep of natural tar to a manufactured product of the oil industry.

Synonyms: naphtha, petroleum, kerosene, fuel oil, hydrocarbon solvent