asphaltic

English

Etymology

asphalt +‎ -ic

Adjective

asphaltic (comparative more asphaltic, superlative most asphaltic)

1. Resembling, containing, or relating to asphalt or bitumen.

   Synonym: bituminous

   asphaltic concrete; asphaltic sediment

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 293-298:

     The aggregated Soyle
     Death with his Mace petrific, cold and dry,
     As with a Trident smote, and fix’t as firm
     As Delos floating once; the rest his look
     Bound with Gorgonian rigor not to move,
     And with Asphaltic slime,

   • 1789, Erasmus Darwin, The Loves of the Plants, Canto 4, lines 275-276, in The Botanic Garden, London: J. Johnson, p. 166,^[2]

     On mouldering piles amid asphaltic mud [the pilgrim]

     Hears the hoarse bittern, where Gomorrah stood;

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 2, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 8:

     […] the congealed frost lay ten inches thick in a hard, asphaltic pavement,

2. (obsolete) Of or relating to the Dead Sea (salt lake between Jordan and Israel).
   • 1619, Stephen Jerome, Origens Repentance‎^[3], London: Roger Jackson, Section 2, p. 29:

     As Sodomes Apples, neere th’Asphalticke lake,
     Of specious shew, yet touch’t, to ashes turning,
     So are sinnes poysons sweete, yet bane to take;

   • 1737, Richard Glover, Leonidas‎^[4], London: R. Dodsley, Book 3, lines 349-354, p. 93:

     […] who gather from the fragrant shrub
     The aromatic balsam, and extract
     Its milky juice along the lovely side
     Of winding Jordan, till immers’d it sleep
     Beneath the pitchy surface, which obscures
     Th’ Asphaltic lake.

Derived terms

• semiasphaltic

 

Translations

containing asphalt

• Polish: asfaltowy (pl)