spermaceti
English edit
Etymology edit
From Latin sperma (“sperm”) + Latin cētī (“of the whale”, genitive of cētus).
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌspɜːməˈsiːti/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /spɚməˈsiːti/, /spɚməˈsɛti/, (obsolete, proscribed) /spɚməˈsɪti/[1]
Noun edit
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:
- 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 edit
Translations edit
wax obtained from the head of sperm whale
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References edit
- ^ Meredith, L. P. (1872) “Spermaceti”, in Every-Day Errors of Speech[1], Philadelphia: J.P. Lippincott & Co., page 42.
Further reading edit
spermaceti on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Anagrams edit
French edit
Noun edit
spermaceti m (plural spermacetis)
Further reading edit
- “spermaceti”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Italian edit
Etymology edit
From Latin sperma (“sperm”) + Latin cētī (“of the whale”).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
spermaceti m
Descendants edit
- → Turkish: ispermeçet
Further reading edit
spermaceti in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana