Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Turpentine
/ˈtɜːrpəntaɪn/noun
The resin tapped from pine trees, and the solvent distilled from it.
The Greek roots
τερέβινθος
terébinthos
terebinth tree
Literally: “resin of the terebinth”
Follow a root:τερέβινθος3 words
The story of the word
The original substance came from the terebinth, a Mediterranean tree in the pistachio family, and the name simply moved when pine turned out to be far more plentiful. Latin terebinthina became terbentine in Old French and English rounded off the ending. τερέβινθος has no Indo-European parentage and belongs to a set of plant names the Greeks inherited from earlier inhabitants of the Aegean, along with κυπάρισσος and ὑάκινθος.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
terebinthterpene
In a sentence
The studio smelled of turpentine and linseed oil for a week.