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Glite Dictionary
seed lac

seed lac

9.9
Small dark pieces made by crushing and washing stick resin, used to make shellac
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : lac semilla
  • After collecting the stick lac, workers crush and wash it to produce seed lac.

Examples

  • The factory imports seed lac and processes it into pure shellac for the market.

  • High-quality varnish requires purified seed lac before it can be mixed with alcohol.

  • What is seed lac?

  • The seed lac industry is growing rapidly in India.

  • After collecting the stick lac, workers crush and wash it to produce seed lac.

  • High-quality varnish requires purified seed lac before it can be mixed with alcohol.

  • The factory imports seed lac and processes it into pure shellac for the market.

Synonyms

lac
vsseed lac
  • Specialized
23 9.9

A sticky natural substance made by insects used to make varnish, dyes, and sealing wax

is the processed granular form produced from that resin for shellac making
lak
vsseed lac
  • Indian
9.9

A sticky substance from insects used to make shellac and dyes

is the specific crushed and washed granular form used to prepare shellac

Surface Forms

seed lac singular
seed lacs plural

Morphology

seed + lac

A learner who knows 'seed' (small particle) and 'lac' (natural resin) can infer that 'seed lac' refers to a small or granular form of lac, so the basic idea is compositional. However, the precise technical sense (made by crushing and washing stick lac and used in shellac production) is specialized and not fully predictable from the constituents alone, so it is only partially transparent.

Etymology

Seed lac comes from the small grain-like pieces made when workers crush and wash stick lac, the resin insects leave on tree branches. Because the pieces look like tiny 'seeds' and are the cleaned granules used to make 'shellac' and varnish, the name seed lac came to mean those small bits.