wood spirit
- noun
- /wʊd ˈspɪrɪt/
- Specialized
:
espíritu de madera
- The artist used wood spirit to clean his brushes.
Examples
-
It is important to handle wood spirit with care due to its toxic properties.
-
Engineers sometimes use wood spirit as a fuel in specialized internal combustion engines.
-
Old scientific texts often refer to wood spirit as an essential solvent for laboratory procedures.
-
Do you know what wood spirits are?
-
Engineers sometimes use wood spirit as a fuel in specialized internal combustion engines.
-
It is important to handle wood spirit with care due to its toxic properties.
-
Old scientific texts often refer to wood spirit as an essential solvent for laboratory procedures.
Synonyms
17
6.5
A light poisonous alcohol used as fuel, solvent, and antifreeze
1
7.1
A poisonous, flammable liquid once made from wood that people use as fuel or solvent
1
6.7
A poisonous clear liquid that burns easily and is used to stop freezing, to dissolve things, and as fuel
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'an alcohol obtained by distilling wood' is directly inferable from combining 'wood' (source) and 'spirit' (a distilled alcoholic liquid). This compositional, source+product structure is cross-linguistically common (e.g. 'wood alcohol') and would be graspable by a B1 learner who knows both constituents, aside from the minor homonymy of 'spirit' (ghost vs. liquor) which context typically resolves.
Etymology
Wood spirit may come from old chemical work: people heated wood and collected the clear, strong liquid that came out, calling it a spirit because it seemed like the wood's hidden essence. That's why wood spirit now means the dangerous alcohol 'methanol', in other words a 'poisonous alcohol' used as a solvent or fuel.