Lexic.us

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Paraffine

1. [n -S]

Medical Definition of Paraffine

1. 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. 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. Origin: F. Paraffine, fr. L. Parum too little + affinis akin. So named in allusion to its chemical inactivity. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Paraffine

Literary usage of Paraffine

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Asphalts and Allied Substances: Their Occurrence, Modes of Production, Uses by Herbert Abraham (1920)
"The treatment of paraffine-bearing petroleums for the recovery of paraffine is ... Tho methods for recovering paraffine wax from lignite tar, shale tar and ..."

2. The Chemical News and Journal of Industrial Science (1864)
"As regards the temperature to be employed it is further stated :—But in order to obtain the largest quantity of crude paraffine oil from coals by means of ..."

3. Manual of Chemical Technology by Johannes Rudolf Wagner (1904)
"Instead of treating the paraffine with active agents, it has been proposed to use neutral solvents for the removal of the oily materials ; for this purpose, ..."

4. The American Cyclopaedia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge by George Ripley, Charles Anderson Dana (1883)
"That paraffine existed in petroleum was noticed by Buckner in Bavarian oil aa early as ... Various methods are employed for the preparation of paraffine, ..."

5. The Laryngoscope by American Laryngological, Rhinological, and Otological Society (1902)
"The Application of paraffine Preparations in Deformities of the Nose. ... A mixture of one part of solid paraffine and of four parts of liquid paraffine is ..."

6. Journal of the American Medical Association by American Medical Association (1890)
"It will do so in twenty-four hours, when the specimen has a transparent amber look. Wherever turpentine will go melted paraffine will follow and inasmuch as ..."

7. A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines by Andrew Ure (1858)
"paraffine. Distil beech-tar to dryness, rectify the heavy oil which collects at the bottom of the receiver, and when a thick matter begins to rise, ..."

8. How to Work with the Microscope by Lionel Smith Beale (1880)
"Smith and Beck, and since modified for paraffine, which is represented in pi. ... But these lamps, and indeed gas itself, yield to paraffine and ..."

Other Resources: