turpentine

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a volatile liquid distilled from pine resin and used as a solvent, paint thinner, and source of chemical compounds

   She cleaned the oil-paint brushes with turpentine beside an open window.

2. 2
   noun

   the resinous oleoresin secreted by certain trees, especially pines and terebinths

   A cut in the pine released sticky turpentine from the wood.

From Middle English terebentyne, through Old French and Latin terebinthina from Greek terebinthine, referring to resin from the terebinth tree. The modern word came to denote the volatile oil distilled from resinous trees.

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