Find the word definition

Crossword clues for spermaceti

The Collaborative International Dictionary
spermaceti

cachalot \cach"a*lot\, n. [F. cachalot.] (Zo["o]l.) The sperm whale ( Physeter macrocephalus). It has in the top of its head a large cavity, containing an oily fluid, which, after death, concretes into a whitish crystalline substance called spermaceti. See Sperm whale.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
spermaceti

"waxy, fatty stuff in the head of certain whales," late 15c., from Medieval Latin sperma ceti "sperm of a whale" (it has when fresh something of the appearance of sperm), from Latin sperma (see sperm) + ceti, genitive of cetus "whale, large sea animal" (see Cetacea). The substance in olden times was credited with medicinal properties, as well as being used for candle oil.\n\nUse ... Sperma Cete ana with redd Wyne when ye wax old.

[Sir George Ripley, "The Compound of Alchemy," 1471]

\nScientists still are not sure exactly what it does. Sperm whale, short for spermaceti whale, is from 1830.
Wiktionary
spermaceti

n. A wax obtained from the head of sperm whales. It is used to make cosmetics etc.

WordNet
spermaceti

n. a white waxy substance from oil of the sperm whale

Wikipedia
Spermaceti

Spermaceti (from Latin sperma meaning "semen", and ceti meaning "whale") is a waxy substance found in the head cavities of the sperm whale (and, in smaller quantities, in the oils of other whales). Spermaceti is created in the spermaceti organ inside the whale's head.

Two theories for the spermaceti organ's biological function suggest it either controls buoyancy, or acts as a focusing apparatus for the whale's sense of echolocation. There has been concrete evidence to support both theories. The buoyancy theory holds that the sperm whale is capable of heating the spermaceti, lowering its density and thus allowing the whale to float; in order for the whale to sink down again, it must take water into its blowhole which cools the spermaceti into a denser solid. This claim, however, has been called into question by recent research which indicates a lack of biological structures to support this heat exchange, as well as the fact that the change in density is too small to be meaningful until the organ grows to huge size.

The proportion of wax esters in the spermaceti organ increases with the age of the whale: 38–51% in calves, 58–87% in adult females, and 71–94% in adult males. Spermaceti wax is extracted from sperm oil by crystallisation at , when treated by pressure and a chemical solution of caustic alkali. Spermaceti forms brilliant white crystals that are hard but oily to the touch, and are devoid of taste or smell, making it very useful as an ingredient in cosmetics, leatherworking, and lubricants. The substance was also used in making candles of a standard photometric value, in the dressing of fabrics, and as a pharmaceutical excipient, especially in cerates and ointments. The candlepower was a photometric unit defined in the English Metropolitan Gas Act 1860 and adopted at the International Electrotechnical Conference of 1883. It depended upon a standardised pure spermaceti candle.

Usage examples of "spermaceti".

Candles can be and have been made of beeswax, tallow from animal fat, spermaceti from the sperm whale, waxes from various plants, paraffin wax derived from petroleum, and combinations of these things.

Stubb stoutly stood up to his spermaceti supper at the capstan-head, as if that capstan were a sideboard.

It is in the upper part of this enormous head, in great cavities divided by cartilages, that is to be found from six to eight hundred pounds of that precious oil called spermaceti.

For though other species of whales find their food above water, and may be seen by man in the act of feeding, the spermaceti whale obtains his whole food in unknown zones below the surface.

Why, they saw the poor old Fox being fair pulled to pieces by an American frigate that was not only taking her new foretopmast out of her but also transferring what oil and spermaceti she had won - the forehold and perhaps half the main, no more - into another whaler, the Amelia, also from London river.

It was the idea also that this same spermaceti was that quickening humour of the Greenland Whale which the first syllable of the word literally expresses.

It was the idea also, that this same spermaceti was that quickening humor of the Greenland Whale which the first syllable of the word literally expresses.

She shook her head, her face pressed to his shoulder, the smells of orris root and velvet and spermaceti oil filling her nose.

In this book is an outline purporting to be a "Picture of a Physeter or Spermaceti whale, drawn by scale from one killed on the coast of Mexico, August, 1793, and hoisted on deck.