German

Noun

Bitumen n ‎(genitive Bitumens, plural Bitumen or Bitumina)

1. bitumen

Declension

English

Noun

bitumen ‎(plural bitumina or bitumens)

1. Mineral pitch; a black, tarry substance, burning with a bright flame; Jew’s pitch. It occurs as an abundant natural product in many places, as on the shores of the Dead and Caspian Seas. It is used in cements, in the construction of pavements, etc.
   • 2014 August 24, Jeff Howell, “Home improvements: gravel paths and cutting heating bills [print version: Cold comfort in technology, 23 August 2014, p. P5]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Property):

     You need to excavate and remove the topsoil, line the subsoil with a geotextile, then lay and compact hardcore. Follow this with a layer of compacted "hoggin" – compacted clay, gravel and sand. This is then sprayed with hot bitumen, and has a layer of pea shingle rolled into it.

2. By extension, any one of the natural hydrocarbons, including the hard, solid, brittle varieties called asphalt, the semisolid maltha and mineral tars, the oily petrolea, and even the light, volatile naphthas.
3. (Canadian English) Canadian deposits of extremely heavy crude oil

Synonyms

• (mineral pitch): Jew’s lime, Jew’s pitch, Jew’s slime, slime (all obsolete)

Translations

Related terms

• bituminous
• bitumoid
• crude bitumen
• refined bitumen

References

1. ↑ bitumen ex ea Galli excoquunt; Pliny, 16, 75.

See also

• asphalt

Latin

Etymology

The latter element is the common suffix -men; the former is from Gaulish^[1]*bitu, from Proto-Celtic *bitu, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷétu. Cognate with Scottish Gaelic bìth ‎(“resin, gum”), English cud, Sanskrit जतु ‎(jatu, “lac, gum”). Influenced by Latin ferrūmen ‎(“cement, glue”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /biˈtuː.men/, [bɪˈtuː.mẽ]

Noun

bitūmen n ‎(genitive bitūminis); third declension

1. mineral pitch, bitumen

Inflection

Third declension neuter.

Related terms

• bitūmineus
• bitūminō
• bitūminōsus

Descendants

• French: béton
  • Portuguese: betão
• Italian: bitume
• Portuguese: betume
• Russian: би́тум m ‎(bítum)
• Spanish: betún

References

• bitumen in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• bitumen in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “bitumen”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• bitumen in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

1. ↑ bitumen ex ea Galli excoquunt; Pliny, 16, 75.