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Webster 1913 Edition


Wootz

Wootz

(woōts)
,
Noun.
[Perhaps a corruption of Canarese
ukku
steel.]
A species of steel imported from the East Indies, valued for making edge tools; Indian steel. It has in combination a minute portion of alumina and silica.

Definition 2024


wootz

wootz

English

Noun

wootz (countable and uncountable, plural wootzes)

  1. A famous type of steel from India, much admired for making sword blades.
    • 1863, The celebrated wootz or steel of India, made in little cakes of only about two pounds weight, possesses qualities which no European steel can surpass. Industrial Biography, Samuel Smiles, 1963.
    • 1884, The word first appears in 'Experiments and Observations to investigate the Nature of a Kind of Steel manufactured at Bombay, and there called Wootz,' ... By G. Pearson, M.D. (paper read before the Royal Soc., June 11, 1795). Robert F. Burton, The Book of the Sword, page 110.

Usage notes

In earlier usage it appears as simply wootz (see quotations), later being referred to as wootz steel

See also