latex

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin latex (“water, running water, liquid, juice”),^[2][3][4][5] which was already used in post-classical Latin of a body fluid by van Helmont in 1648, and of plant juice in 1823.^[2] The Latin noun is generally thought to be a borrowing of Ancient Greek λάταξ (látax, “drop of wine, dregs of wine”), with its ending altered after Latin nouns in -ex;^[2][6][7][8] but the OED and de Vaan find the shift of meaning surprising, and the OED allows that both words may have been borrowed from another language.^[2][7] De Vaan notes that the Latin word is mainly poetic.^[7] Beekes considers the Greek word probably Pre-Greek, because of its suffix and its place in the vocabulary of wine.^[6] Etymonline reports Watkins's reconstruction of a root Proto-Indo-European *lat- (“wet, moist”), source also of Middle Irish laith (“beer”), Welsh llaid (“mud, mire”), Lithuanian latakas (“pool, puddle”) and Old Norse leþja (“filth”),^[3] and Merriam-Webster and Klein compare Old High German letto (“clay”).^[9][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In medicine, a clear liquid thought to be part of a humour or other body fluid, especially plasma and lymph: 1650, in Walter Charleton's translation of van Helmont; this sense is now historical.^[2] The Oxford Dictionary of English describes it as the watery part of the blood,^[10] and Barnhart dates the sense "body fluid" to 1662.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The botanical sense, the milky juice of plants such as poppies, spurges and figs, is recorded from 1832, in Lindley's Introduction to Botany,^[2][9] or from 1835 in Barnhart.^[11] From 1900 the word was used especially of the latex of the Pará rubber tree, from which rubber is made, and of the rubber itself.^[2] In 1912 it was extended to a dispersion of polymer particles in water, as used for synthetic rubber, and in 1922 to the water-based latex paint made with it, chiefly in North America.^[2]

Timeline

• 1650 – a clear body fluid, especially plasma or lymph (now historical).^[2]
• 1832 – the milky juice of many plants.^[2][9]
• 1900 – the latex of the rubber tree; the rubber made from it.^[2]
• 1912 – a dispersion of polymer particles in water.^[2]
• 1922 – latex paint.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The milky, usually white sap of many plants, such as the poppy, milkweed and rubber tree, which hardens when exposed to air; especially that of the rubber tree, used to make rubber.^{[12][13][9][2]}
2. A suspension of tiny particles of rubber or plastic in water, used in paints, adhesives and synthetic rubber goods.^[12][13][2]
3. Latex paint.^[12][2]
4. Rubber made from latex, as used for gloves and other thin goods: She is allergic to latex.^[2][13]

Verb

1. To treat a material, such as a textile, with latex.^[9]

Word family

• latex paint

Usage notes

The plural is latexes or latices.^[13][9][5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins