copaiba oil

noun

1. a colorless, yellowish, or bluish liquid having a pepperlike odor and bitter taste, obtained from copaiba by distillation: used chiefly in the manufacture of perfumes and soaps.

Word History and Origins

Origin of copaiba oil¹

First recorded in 1825–35

Example Sentences

Indigenous Chiquitano communities lost up to 98% of the forest they were working sustainably for timber and products such as copaiba oil, said María del Carmen Carreras of WWF Bolivia.

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Even now the export of the Pará nuts, the fruit of the Bertholletia excelsa, yields an annual revenue of two hundred thousand dollars; and the copaiba oil and the urucú, the seeds of the Bixa orellana, used for dyeing, about one hundred thousand dollars.

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A great class of bodies, known as the volatile oils, oil of turpentine, essence of lemons, oil of balsam of copaiba, oil of rosemary, oil of juniper, and many others, differing widely from each other in their odour, in their medicinal effects, in their boiling point, in their specific gravity, &c., are exactly identical in composition,—they contain the same elements, carbon and hydrogen, in the same proportions.

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The men hunt and fish for the day's wants, and sometimes collect a little India-rubber, salsaparilla, or copaiba oil, to sell to traders on their return; the women assist in paddling the canoes, do the cooking, and sometimes fish with rod and line.

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