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The Learning Kingdom's Cool Word of the Day for July 7, 1999
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creosote [n. KREE-uh-sote]
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If you've walked on railroad tracks in the hot sun, you may have smelled
the pungent aroma of creosote, a resinous liquid that is often used to
preserve railroad ties, telephone poles, and other wooden objects exposed
to weather. It's made by heating wood or coal tar and distilling the
vapors that are produced.
After it was discovered in the 1830s, the most common use for creosote was
as an antiseptic. The German kreosot was coined to describe the smelly
liquid. It's a compound: the first part is derived from the Greek kreas
(flesh), and the second is from Greek soter (savior, preserver). Other
words from kreas include pancreas, and its Indo-European root also gave us
crude, cruel, and raw.
There is also creosol, a compound that is a major component of creosote,
and the creosote bush, an aromatic, yellow-flowered plant from the American
southwest.
The beautiful, hardy desert creosote bush:
http://www.desertusa.com/creoste.html
Despite its early medical use, creosote is a toxic environmental hazard:
http://www.nsc.org/ehc/ew/chems/creosote.htm
http://bordeaux.uwaterloo.ca/biol447/assignment1/creosote.html
http://hammock.ifas.ufl.edu/txt/fairs/52860
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