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From Latinnaphtha, from Ancient Greekνάφθα(náphtha, “naphtha”), from Old Persian*naftah, probably borrowed or assimilated from Akkadian𒉌𒆳𒊏(/napṭu/, “petroleum”) , from the verb 𒈾𒁀𒂅(na-ba-ṭu/napâṭu, nabâṭu/, “to be(come) bright, to shine; to flare up, to blaze”). The Greek mediation is reflected in the spelling – ‘ph’ and ‘th’ (from ‘φ’ and ‘θ’).
The turmoil went on—no rest, no peace. […] It was nearly eleven o'clock now, and he strolled out again. In the little fair created by the costers' barrows the evening only seemed beginning; and the naphtha flares made one's eyes ache, the men's voices grated harshly, and the girls' faces saddened one.
No, this is not a disentanglement from, but a progressive knotting into — they go in under archways, secret entrances of rotted concrete that only looked like loops of an underpass... certain trestles of blackened wood have moved slowly by overhead, and the smells begun of coal from days far to the past, smells of naphtha winters, of Sundays when no traffic came through...
1995, Philip Pullman, Northern Lights:
The Common Room and the Library were lit by anbaric light, but the Scholars preferred the older, softer naphtha lamps in the Retiring Room.