Oil

A bottle of olive oil used in food

Oil is a liquid with varying degrees of viscosity depending on temperature. Oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic and lipophilic. Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated lipids that are liquid at room temperature.

Plant and animal oils

Diverse oils are produced by plants, animals, and other organisms. Lipid is the scientific term for the fats, steroids, and phospholipids that are soluble in organic solvents. Another large class of plant oils are tall oils, mixtures of fats and rosins that are extracted from trees and used mainly as solvent and fuel. In addition to modern animal-derived oils (e.g. tallow), whale oil was once widely used.

From the perspective of commercial applications, fats are broadly significant because they are precursors to soaps and are a component of many foods, e.g. cooking oils. Drying oils, consisting of highly unsaturated fats, are key components of some paints and lacquers.

Petroleum-derived oils

Several sources of "petroleum-derived" oils exist including distillates from crude oil and shale oil. Major uses of these oils include fuels (e.g. heating oil), hydraulic fluids, transformer oil, and heat-transfer fluids.

Additionally, synthetic oils, mainly used as lubricants, are produced by chemical processing of petrochemicals.

Petroleum-based oils originate from ancient fossilized organic materials, such as zooplankton and algae, which geochemical processes have converted into oil.

Etymology and history

First usage in a form resembling the modern is in Anglo-Norman before (a)1300 in Land of Cokaygne in Middle English from Old French oile as a consequence of influence of Edward the Confessor (1042–1066) and after the killing of King Harold on 14 October 1066 after the 1066 invasion from Normandy, the earliest extant source a translation from Latin during the 12th or 13th century (Marbode Lapidaire) from Classical Latin oleum, (the earliest extant source being: Plautus, Poenulus) which in turn comes from the Greek ἔλαιον (elaion), "olive oil, oil" and that from ἐλαία (elaia), "olive tree", "olive fruit". "Olive oil" in Mycenaean Greek (transliteration) is e-rai-wo.

Oil has been used throughout history as a religious medium. It is often considered a spiritually purifying agent and is used for anointing purposes. As a particular example, holy anointing oil has been an important ritual liquid for Judaism and Christianity.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The Old English word was: ele; "Eft on fyrste, æfter Cristes upstige to heofonum, rixode sum wælhreow casere on Romana ríce, æfter Nerone, se wæs Domicianus gehaten, cristenra manna ehtere: se het afyllan ane cyfe mid weallendum ele," (in: IV of Homilies written by Ælfric)
  2. ↑
    Þer beþ riuers..Of oile, melk, honi and wine.
    In Cokaigne is met and drink,
    With-vte care, how and swink.
    ...
    Ther beth riuers gret and fine
    Of oile, melk, honi and wine.
    "riuers": "The four rivers of Paradise" of which oil is Geon because of the Apocalypse of St Paul
  3. ↑ Latin language sources chronology:
    BCE / BC:
    Plautus, Poenulus (c. 200)
    Cato the Elder, (234–149) (Tusculum) De Agri Cultura (c. 160)
    Lex Thoria (111)
    Varro, (116–27) (Reate) De Re Rustica
    Cicero (106, Arpinum)
    Virgil, (October 15, 70, Andes) Aeneid
    Horace, (December 8, 65) Saturae
    Ovid, (March 20, 43) Tristia
    CE / AD:
    Columella, (70 AD ) De Re Rustica
    Pliny the Elder, (23 CE Transpadane Gaul - August 24, 79, Stabiae) Naturalis Historia
    Juvenal, (AD 80, Aquinum) Saturae

References

  1. ↑ Alberts, Bruce; Johnson, Alexander; Lewis, Julian; Raff, Martin; Roberts, Keith; Walter, Peter. Molecular Biology of the Cell. New York: Garland Science, 2002, pp. 62, 118–119.
  2. ↑ "Lipids". IUPAC Gold Book.
  3. ↑ Norlin, Lars-Hugo (2026). "Tall Oil". Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry. pp. 1–14. doi:10.1002/14356007.a26_057.pub2. ISBN 978-3-527-30385-4.
  4. ↑ Thomas, Alfred; Matthäus, Bertrand; Fiebig, Hans-Jochen (2015). "Fats and Fatty Oils". Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry. pp. 1–84. doi:10.1002/14356007.a10_173.pub2. ISBN 978-3-527-30673-2.
  5. ↑ Weiss, Hans-Jürgen; Lisboa, Antonio Carlos Luz (2010). "Oil Shale". Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry. doi:10.1002/14356007.a18_101.pub2. ISBN 978-3-527-30385-4.
  6. ↑ Möller, Uwe Jens; Young, David G. (2003). "Hydraulic Fluids". Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry. doi:10.1002/14356007.a13_165.pub2. ISBN 3-527-30673-0.
  7. ↑ Reinicke, Kurt M.; Hueni, Greg; Liermann, Norbert; Oppelt, Joachim; Reichetseder, Peter; Unverhaun, Wolfram (2014). "Oil and Gas, 1. Introduction". Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry. pp. 1–14. doi:10.1002/14356007.a23_117.pub2. ISBN 978-3-527-30673-2.
  8. ↑ Kvenvolden, Keith A. (2006). "Organic geochemistry – A retrospective of its first 70 years". Organic Geochemistry. 37 (1): 1. Bibcode:2006OrGeo..37....1K. doi:10.1016/j.orggeochem.2005.09.001. S2CID 95305299.
  9. ↑ Bosworth, Joseph (2014). "ELE". In Thomas Northcote Toller; Christ Sean; Ondřej Tichy (eds.). Bosworth Toller's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary online. Prague: Faculty of Arts, Charles University.
  10. 1 2 3 Oxford English Dictionary. "oil noun1 Meaning & use". Oxford University Press. in W. Heuser, Kildare-Gedichte (1904)
  11. 1 2 3 Oxford English Dictionary. "oil noun 1 Etymology". Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/OED/9508264200. Anglo-Norman oile < classical Latin
  12. 1 2 3 4 "Anglo-Irish poems of the Middle Ages: The Kildare Poems (Author: [unknown]) Poem 1 The Land of Cokaygne {MS fol 3r}". Corpus of Electronic Texts Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh.
  13. ↑ Bella Millett. "The Land of Cockaygne London MS Harley 913, ff. 3r-6v, Notes 45-46". British Library: University of Southampton Wessex Parallel WebTexts. Apocalypse of St Paul; see M. R. James, trans., The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924), p. 538) Archived 9 August 2024 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ↑ Bella Millett (ed.). "The Land of Cockaygne London MS Harley 913, ff. 3r-6v, Translation". British Library: University of Southampton Wessex Parallel WebTexts. Archived 14 June 2025 at the Wayback Machine
  15. 1 2 C. L. Allen (2006). "English, Old English". In Keith Brown; Sarah Ogilvie (eds.). Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World. Australian National University, Canberra: Elsevier Science. p. 358: Effects of Language Contact (last paragraph). ISBN 9780080877754. {{cite book}}: More than one of |publication-date= and |date= specified (help)
  16. ↑ Pauline Stafford; John Hudson; et al. (2020). "NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND". In Philip Waller; Robert Peberdy (eds.). A Dictionary of British and Irish History. p. 447. ISBN 9781119698425.
  17. ↑ Studer M.A.D. Lit., Paul (1924). Joan Evans; P.S. (eds.). Anglo-Norman lapidaries. University of Oxford: Paris: EDOUARD CHAMPION fr: archive.org. p. XIII, XVI, XIX: Introduction; 1, 2: THE MANUSCRIPTS; 21, 22: 1 THE FIRST FRENCH VERSION OF MARBODE'S LAPIDARY – via anglo-norman.net/entry/oile_1. No Western mineralogical lapidaries are known to have been written after the seventh century, when Isodore of Seville compiled his Etymologiae, until Marbode, bishop of Rennes, between 1067 and 1101, wrote his Latin poem de lapidibus" "six Old French verse translations made directly from the text are known: that called the First French Version" "the discovery of strong evidence that the version called by Pannier Le Premier lapidaire francaise, to which we refer as The First French Version of Marbode's Lapidary, was written before 1150. – of the earlier period there survive scarcely any genuine continental lapidaries in the vernacular except the two translations of Marbode known as the Lapidaire de Modene and the Lapidaire de Berne" "A. M.S. Paris Bibl. Nat. lat. 14470 – is the oldest MS containing the First French Version – The writing belongs to the latter half of the twelfth century or the beginning of the thirteenth" " Meyer showed conclusively MS. A. was not written in England – our investigations have brought to light strong evidence that it became the basis of an Anglo-Norman prose version about 1150 – The language is that which in the first half of the twelfth century served as a common literary medium in the Norman dominions on both sides of the Channel – uile (usually oile 265-66 {{cite book}}: More than one of |publication-date= and |date= specified (help)
  18. ↑ Prifysgol Aberystwyth. "Results (3)". The Anglo-Norman Dictionary (second ed.). Department of Modern Languages Hugh Owen Building: Prifysgol Aberystwyth: anglo-norman.net.
  19. 1 2 Harper, Douglas. "oil". Online Etymology Dictionary.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 oleum. Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short. A Latin Dictionary on Perseus Project.
  21. ↑ John Starks Jnr. "THE PUNY PUNIC (Poenulus) BY Plautus Dramatis Personae)". binghamton.edu. The time is more or less the present (i.e. circa 200 B.C.)
  22. 1 2 CATO AND VARRO ON AGRICULTURE. Loeb Classical Library 283. Translated by W. D. Hooper; Harrison Boyd Ash. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1934.
  23. ↑ M. Stephen Spurr (2014). "Appendix: Cato the Elder: De agricultura". In Antony Spawforth; Esther Eidinow; Simon Hornblower (eds.). Oxford Companion to CLASSICAL CIVILIZATION. Oxford University Press. p. 156. ISBN 9780198706779.
  24. ↑ UGA. "LEX THORIA AGRARIA ( 111 BC)". Université Grenoble Alpes – via google.co.uk/books/edition/A_Dictionary_of_Greek_and_Roman_Antiquit/nfUrAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Lex+Thoria&pg=PA700&printsec=frontcover "the date of the Lex Thoria is usually fixed by Rudorff as the year of the city 643 or B.C. 111".
  25. ↑ John Ferguson; et al. (4 December 2025). "Governors Cicero". Britannica.
  26. ↑ Michael Simpson (1998). "Virgil". Encyclopedia of World Biography. Gale Academic OneFile. Gale – via poets.org/poet/virgil.
  27. ↑ Robin Nisbet (28 May 2007). Stephen Harrison (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Horace: 1 – Horace: life and chronology from Part 1: – Orientations. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CCOL0521830028.002.
  28. ↑ William L. Carey. "P. OVIDIUS NASO (43 B.C. - A.D. 17)" (PDF). George Mason University. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 June 2003 – via poetryfoundation.org/poets/ovid.
  29. ↑ Silke Diederich (25 February 2016). "Oxford Biographies Columella". Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/obo/9780195389661-0203.
  30. ↑ Jerry Stannard. "Pliny the Elder". Britannica.
  31. ↑ James Sullivan (December 16, 2003). "JUVENAL". In Frank N. Magill (ed.). The Ancient World Dictionary of World Biography. Vol. 1. Taylor & Francis. p. 647.
  32. ↑ ἔλαιον. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
  33. ↑ ἐλαία in Liddell and Scott.
  34. ↑ Ventris, Michael; Chadwick, John; L. R. Palmer. "Review:MICHAEL VENTRIS and JOHN CHADWICK:Documents in Mycenaean Greek, 300 selected tablets from Knossos, Pylos and Mycenae, with comm. and vocabulary. With a foreword by Alan J.B. Wace. Cambridge Univ. Press 1956. XXXI. 452 S. 26 Abb. 3 Taf. 4o 84 sh". Gnomon. 29 (8). Verlag C.H.Beck: ITHAKA – via Palmer: Google Scholar "Olive oil again would appear either as 38-60-42 or more precisely as 38-33-42 (e-rai-wo)" in: scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Olive+oil+38-33-42+%28e-rai-wo%29&btnG=via: Kim Raymoure minoan.deaditerranean.com/resources/linear-b-sign-groups/e/e-ra-wo/. Deprecated link archived 12 January 2026 at archive.today
  35. ↑ Chesnutt, Randall D. (January 2005). "Perceptions of Oil in Early Judaism and the Meal Formula in Joseph and Aseneth". Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha. 14 (2): 113–132. doi:10.1177/0951820705051955. ISSN 0951-8207. S2CID 161240989.
  36. ↑ Sahagun, Louis (2008-10-11). "Armenian priests journey for jars of holy oil". Los Angeles Times.