caoutchouc

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from French caoutchouc, from Spanish caucho, from Quechua kawchu.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈkaʊt͡ʃʊk/, /ˈkaʊt͡ʃuk/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

caoutchouc (countable and uncountable, plural caoutchoucs)

  1. (obsolete) Latex; natural rubber.
    Synonyms: caoutchouc, india rubber
    • 1831, L E L, chapter XXIII, in Romance and Reality.  In Three Volumes.">…], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, , →OCLC, page 299:
      Many a passer-by thought Miss Arundel was listening to some subject of most touching interest: his Lordship was only detailing the benefit he derived one wet day from his caoutchouc cloak.
    • 1855, William Somerville Orr, Orr's Circle of the Sciences, page 205:
      Resin, pitch, sealing-wax, caoutchouc, sulphur, gutta-percha, and generally all bodies commonly termed resinous, besides a great variety of others, will be found to acquire, after friction, the power of attracting light bodies, and hence will be said, according to a limitation of terms already accepted, to be in an electrized or electrified state .

Derived terms

Translations

References

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish cauchuc (an early variant of caucho), from Quechua kawchu. The final -c was formerly variably pronounced or silent, but is now always silent.

Pronunciation

Noun

caoutchouc m (plural caoutchoucs)

  1. rubber (natural and synthetic)
    Synonym: gomme
  2. (Louisiana, Cajun) plastic
    Synonym: plastique
  3. a rubber tree, hevea (Hevea brasiliensis)
  4. a rubber fig, a tropical tree often used ornamentally (Ficus elastica)
  5. a raincoat
    Synonyms: imperméable, K-way
  6. (in the plural) waterproof rubber boots
    Synonym: bottes de pluie
  7. a rubber band
    Synonym: élastique

Derived terms

Descendants

Further reading