kerosene

Etymology

It is formed irregularly from Ancient Greek κηρός (kērós, “wax”) and the chemical suffix -ene,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} as in camphene.^[9][10] The name was coined by the Canadian geologist Abraham Gesner of Halifax, Nova Scotia, who developed a way of distilling it about 1846.^[3][4][11] The Greek word is related to Latin cēra (“wax”), the source of cere,^[3][12] and Etymonline calls it of unknown origin, perhaps not Indo-European.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A lamp and heating oil distilled from mineral sources: 1852, in a headline of the Toronto Weekly Globe, "The Kerosene Gas".^[11] Etymonline and Barnhart also date the word to 1852,^[3][4] while the OED's first quotation is from Gesner's United States patent of 1854,^[2] the date Merriam-Webster gives too.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The name refers to wax because the oil contains paraffin, whose solid form is waxlike,^[3][4][13] or, as Merriam-Webster puts it, because paraffin was used in making it.^[9] Gesner first distilled it from albertite, a bituminous mineral resembling coal, which explains its other name, coal oil.^[4][11] Dictionary.com notes that the name was once a trademark.^[8] In British English the same fuel is usually called paraffin or paraffin oil.^[3][4][14] The verb, to soak something with kerosene, especially to make it burn, is recorded from 1883, in the Pall Mall Gazette.^[2][15] It is also used as a fuel for tractors and jet engines.^[15][14]

Timeline

• 1852 – a mineral oil used for lighting and heating.^[11][3][4] The OED's first quotation is from 1854.^[2]
• 1883 – verb, to soak with kerosene.^[2][15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A flammable oil, a mixture of hydrocarbons distilled from petroleum (formerly also from coal or shale), used in lamps and heaters, as fuel for jet engines and as a solvent; paraffin in British use.^{[9][14][2][8][15]}
2. Used attributively: burning or using this oil: a kerosene heater.^[8][9]

Verb

1. To soak something with kerosene, especially so that it will burn.^[2][15]

Related words

• cere
• paraffin
• coal oil
• cerecloth

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster gives kerosine as an alteration of kerosene,^[9][10] and Collins notes that kerosine is the preferred spelling in technical and industrial use.^[14] Australian English has compounds such as kerosene tin, a container for storing the fuel, and kerosene bush and kerosene grass for native plants.^[16]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
11. ^ a b c d Dollinger, Stefan, ed., A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles, 3rd ed. (online), Vancouver: University of British Columbia, dchp.arts.ubc.ca
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Moore, Bruce, ed. (2004), The Australian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Melbourne: Oxford University Press