train oiln.
/ˈtreɪn ɔɪl/, U.S. /ˈtreɪn ˌɔɪl/ Now chiefly historical.
Oil extracted from the carcasses of sea animals, esp. that obtained by boiling the blubber of the right whale.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > extracted or refined oil > [noun] > animal oil > whale oil
whale oil1435
train1465
train oil1465
meat-oil1501
1465 in D. M. Owen Making of King's Lynn (1984) 368 12 barellis trane oyle.
c1503 R. Arnold Chron. f. lxxxx/2 (table) Trayne oyle the barell.
a1556 R. Chancellor in R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations (1598) I. 237 They haue much oyle which wee call treine oyle.
1591 G. Fletcher Of Russe Common Wealth iii. f. 8v An other..principall commoditie is their Trane oyle, drawen out of the seal fish.
1661 R. Lovell Πανζωορυκτολογια, sive Panzoologicomineralogia 229 Of the fat [of the tunny] is made Traine-oile for Clothiers.
1712 Philos. Trans. 1710–12 (Royal Soc.) 27 446 The Fat of a Whale,..out of which we boil the Train-Oyl.
1779 Farmer's Mag. Dec. 380 Washing dogs with train oil, or anointing them with..hog's lard, have..been recommended.
1823 J. Badcock Domest. Amusem. 151 Soft Soap is made of train oil and a little tallow.
1865 F. Parkman Champlain ii, in Pioneers of France in New World 210 Seeking..the more modest gains of codfish and train-oil.
1897 F. Nansen in Daily News 9 Feb. 8/4 A fish gratin made of powdered fish and Indian meal and train oil.
1922 J. J. Sudborough Bernthsen's Text-bk. Org. Chem. (new ed.) vi. 171 Oleic acid..is present as olein (glyceryl oleate) in the fatty oils especially e.g. olive, almond, and train oils.
1959 J. W. Godsell I was no Lady viii. 131 Cleaning the polar bear skins entailed so much work, including the removal of masses of heavy, yellow train-oil.
2003 T. C. Smout Exploring Environmental Hist. vii. 122 The inhabitants there burned other vegetation such as fern, juniper and crowberry, supplemented by cattle bones, fish moistened with train oil, dried animal dung and seaweed.
Compounds
General attributive, as train-oil lamp, train-oil man, etc.
ΚΠ
1704 W. King Remarks Tale of Tub 13 The Brewer, the Soap-boiler, the Train-oil-man, were all affronted at it.
1833 T. Carlyle in Fraser's Mag. Aug. 145/1 A train-oil Prince Potemkin (or something like him, for accounts are dubious).
1842 R. Browning Pied Piper of Hamelin in Bells & Pomegranates No. III: Dramatic Lyrics vii A drawing the corks of train-oil-flasks.
1865 G. MacDonald Alec Forbes I. vii. 36 Candles or train-oil lamps were burning in most..houses.
1909 D. Ellis Outl. Bacteriol. xvii. 227 A fishy or train-oil flavour is an evil that butter-makers have to fight against.
1916 Jrnl. Franklin Inst. 182 511 With train oil lamps and moulded tapers man might mitigate the evening's gloom.
2009 M. Weissenbacher Sources Power xxvi. 363 Ten years later [sc. 1856] U.S. annual production of spermaceti had reached some five million gallons, and train oil production some eight million gallons.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1465