Adjacent Words
native bearnative beech
Native bread
native cat
native cranberry
Native Dancer
Native devil
native element
native fuchsia
Native Hawaiian
Native hen
native holly
native land
native language
native orange
native peach
native pear
native pheasant
native pomegranate
Native rabbit
native seal
native sloth
native speaker
Native steel
native sulfur
native sulphur
Native thrush
Native turkey
native wallflower
native-born
Full-text Search for "Native paraffin"
1633
Native paraffin definitions
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Webster's 1913 Dictionary
Paraffin Par"af*fin, Paraffine Par"af*fine, n. [F. paraffine, fr. L. parum too little + affinis akin. So named in allusion to its chemical inactivity.] (Chem.) A white waxy substance, resembling spermaceti, tasteless and odorless, and obtained from coal tar, wood tar, petroleum, etc., by distillation. It is used as an illuminant and lubricant. It is very inert, not being acted upon by most of the strong chemical reagents. It was formerly regarded as a definite compound, but is now known to be a complex mixture of several higher hydrocarbons of the methane or marsh-gas series; hence, by extension, any substance, whether solid, liquid, or gaseous, of the same chemical series; thus coal gas and kerosene consist largely of paraffins. Note: In the present chemical usage this word is spelt paraffin, but in commerce it is commonly spelt paraffine. Native paraffin. See Ozocerite. Paraffin series. See Methane series, under Methane.
Webster's 1913 Dictionary
Ozocerite O`zo*ce"rite, n. [Gr. 'o`zein to smell + ? wax.] (Min.) A waxlike mineral resin; -- sometimes called native paraffin, and mineral wax.
