| 释义 |
petroleum|pɪˈtrəʊlɪəm|
Also 6–8 -ium.
[a. med.L. petroleum, f. L. petra (Gr. πέτρα) rock + oleum oil.]
a. A mineral oil, varying from light yellow to dark brown or black, occurring in rocks or on the surface of water in various parts of the world; in modern times of great economic importance, esp. as a source of oils for illumination and mechanical power; rock-oil. Also in extended use (see quots.).
Usually distinguished from the more limpid oils called naphtha and the more viscid called maltha or mineral tar, but sometimes used to include one or both of these.
[1348–9Accts. Exch., K. R. Bundle 391. No. 15. m. 18 Domino Regi de precepto suo..in Cameram suam apud Caleys..viij lb. de petroleum. 14..Sloane MS. 5 lf. 10/2 Petroleum..oleum est factum de petra..G[allice] petroille. ]1526Grete Herball xxvi. (1529) B v, Make a decoccyon in oyle petrolium. 1543Traheron Vigo's Chirurg. (Straunge Wds.), Petrolium is vsed for naphtha which droppeth out of a babilonyke lyme. 1578Lyte Dodoens ii. cvii. 296 The garden Angelica..smelleth almost like to Petroleum. 1601Holland Pliny xxxi. vii. II. 415 In Babylon..is a certain liquid Bitumen or Petroleum, an oleous substance [bitumen liquidum oleo simile]. 1607Markham Caval. i. (1617) 42 If you annoint..with the oile Petrolium. 1695Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth iv. (1723) 217 The Bitumen..found floating in Form of an Oyl upon the Surface of the Water..called by Naturalists Naphtha, and Petroleum. 1761W. Lewis Mat. Med. (ed. 2) 445 Fine petroleum catches fire on the approach of a flaming body. 1800Misc. Tracts in Asiat. Ann. Reg. 320/2 This oil is a genuine petroleum, possessing all the properties of coal tar, being in fact the self-same thing. 1826Amer. Jrnl. Sc. X. 5 The other [well] discharges..vast quantities of petroleum, or, as it is vulgarly called, ‘Seneca oil’. 1842Brande Dict. Sc., etc., Petroleum, a brown liquid bitumen, found in several parts of Europe, in Persia, and in the West Indies. 1861Times 21 Jan. 7/6 In November 1859 in the State of Pennsylvania wells were sunk for the purpose of pumping petroleum or rock oil. 1871Roscoe Elem. Chem. 331 This volatile hydro⁓carbon also exists in the light oils from American petroleum, as well as in coal oils. 1938A. W. Nash in A. E. Dunstan et al. Sci. of Petroleum I. i. 12/1 Petroleum may contain, or be composed of,..compounds in the gaseous, liquid, and/or solid state, depending on the nature of these compounds and the existent conditions of temperature and pressure. 1960J. W. Amyx et al. Petroleum Reservoir Engin. i. 1 Virtually all petroleum is produced from the earth in either liquid or gaseous form. 1960C. Gatlin Petroleum Engin. i. 1/1 Petroleum may be defined as a naturally occurring mixture of hydrocarbons which may be either gas, liquid, or solid. Ibid. 4/2 (heading) Gaseous petroleum (natural gas). 1967J. R. Hughes Storage & Handling Petroleum Liquids 3 Petroleum, by legal definition (Petroleum (Consolidation) Act, 1928) ‘includes crude petroleum, oil made from petroleum, or from coal, shale, peat or other bituminous substances, and other products of petroleum’... The term may also include natural gas found in petroleum-bearing formations.
b. attrib. and Comb., as petroleum-burner, petroleum-car, petroleum-filter, petroleum-furnace, petroleum-lamp, petroleum-motor, petroleum-ointment, petroleum-spring, petroleum-still, petroleum-stove, petroleum-thrower (cf. pétroleur), petroleum-well; petroleum-bearing, petroleum-driven adjs.; petroleum coke, the solid, non-volatile residue left after the distillation and cracking of petroleum; petroleum-ether, a volatile oil obtained from petroleum, also called naphthalic ether; petroleum geology, the branch of geology concerned with the search for oil and natural gas and with their formation, occurrence, and exploitation; so petroleum geologist; petroleum jelly, a soft, greasy, semi-solid mixture of hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum, used as an ointment and lubricant; cf. petrolatum, Vaseline; petroleum-oil = petroleum; in mod. use spec. applied to those varieties whose vapour ignites or ‘flashes’ at higher temperatures, as distinguished from petroleum-spirit, whose vapour flashes at lower temperatures.
1882E. O'Donovan Merv Oasis I. ii. 37 Proprietors of large tracts of *petroleum-bearing ground. 1963D. W. & E. E. Humphries tr. Termier's Erosion & Sedimentation xi. 231 The evolution of petroleum-bearing sediments is brought to its final stages by diagenetic processes.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Petroleum-burner, a burner contrived to vaporize and consume liquid petroleum fed to it from a reservoir.
Ibid., *Petroleum-car, one for transporting petroleum in bulk.
1877Black Green Past. xiii, And drank *petroleum-champagne at 4 dollars a bottle.
1881Jrnl. Chem. Soc. XL. 239 (heading) Products from *petroleum coke. 1971Materials & Technol. II. x. 638 Since 1920 petroleum coke has become a plentiful by-product of petroleum cracking. Ibid. xi. 655 The high graphitizability of the petroleum coke results from the formation of large polycyclic aromatic molecules, which assists carbon crystallite alignment during the coking operation.
1900Westm. Gaz. 28 Feb. 9/2 *Petroleum drinking is on the increase in France.
1896Ibid. 16 Nov. 9/1 In the *petroleum-driven cars there is an odour, which would be more acceptable if it were perfumed.
1866Intell. Observ. No. 51. 231 A volatile essential oil..termed *petroleum ether.
1917Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. XXVIII. 157 *Petroleum geology is..a new profession. Ibid., (heading) Ethics of the *petroleum geologist. 1928E. R. Lilley Geol. Petroleum & Nat. Gas i. 8 The main work of the petroleum geologist until recently was that of locating areas in which anti⁓clinal folds showed in the outcropping strata. 1973R. E. Chapman Petroleum Geol. ii. 22 A study of petroleum geology suggests that the construction of boreholes in the 20th century has not contributed sufficiently to modern geological thought, and that some of the difficulties..are due to the extension of the concepts developed from surface geology to the subsurface. Ibid. 27 The chemistry of petroleum..is low on the petroleum geologists' list of priorities.
1902Westm. Gaz. 8 May 3/1 At a recent inquest the *petroleum inspector of the London County Council stated that within a fortnight there had been eleven sufferers from the use of low-flash oil!
1897Sears, Roebuck Catal. 27/2 *Petroleum Jelly. This is another name for the preparations called Vaseline, Cosmoline, etc., all made from Petroleum. 1906T. E. Herbert Telegraphy xxii. 782 As the cable passes into the pipe it is heavily anointed with petroleum jelly. 1922D. T. Day Handbk. Petroleum Industry II. 360 The official petrolatum of the United States Pharmacopœia, otherwise known as petroleum jelly, or ‘Vaseline’. 1966J. S. Cox Illustr. Dict. Hairdressing 112/1 Petroleum jelly, (Petrolatum, Vaseline, Paraffin Jelly), a purified mixture of semi-solid hydrocarbons, chiefly of the Methane series.
1903Daily Chron. 11 Dec. 6/6 The *petroleum motors..show that a very distinct advance has been made during the twelve months.
1799G. Smith Laboratory I. 41 Mealed powder..mixed with rock-oil, or *petroleum oil. 1874J. H. Collins Metal Mining (1875) 121 Within the last few years, lamps for burning paraffin and petroleum oils underground have been devised. 1898Daily News 14 July 6/6 To adopt a flash point of 100 degrees (Abel close test) as the dividing line between petroleum oil and petroleum spirit.
1881Watts Dict. Chem. VIII. 1509 Artificial Turpentine-oil, *Petroleum-spirit, Polishing Oil: distillate between 120°–170°. 1900Daily News 17 Apr. 7/4 Petroleum spirit still holds the field as a propelling force, both in the cars exhibited here and in those seen in London streets. 1900Regulations Storage, etc., Petrol 15 May (Home Office), The expression ‘Petroleum spirit’ shall mean the petroleum to which the Petroleum Act, 1871, applies.
1877Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 21 Some ten years ago *petroleum-springs were discovered in California.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Petroleum-still, a still for separating the hydrocarbon products from crude petroleum, etc., in the order of their volatility.
1800Misc. Tracts in Asiat. Ann. Reg. 315 An Account of the *Petroleum Wells, in the Burmah Dominions. |