petrol
pronunciation
How to pronounce petrol in British English:
UK [ˈpetrəl]
How to pronounce petrol in American English:
US [ˈpetrəl]
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- Noun:
- a volatile flammable mixture of hydrocarbons (hexane and heptane and octane etc.) derived from petroleum; used mainly as a fuel in internal-combustion engines
Word Origin
- petrol
- petrol: [16] Petrol originally meant ‘mineral oil, extracted from the ground’ (what we would now call petroleum or, more loosely, simply oil); not until the end of the 19th century was it applied to the ‘fuel refined from this’. The word was borrowed from French pétrole, which in turn came from Latin petroleum (itself taken over directly into English in the 16th century).This means etymologically ‘rock-oil’. It was formed from petra ‘rock’ and oleum ‘oil’. Other English words that go back to Latin petra or its Greek source pétrā include parsley, petrify [16], saltpetre [16] (so called because it forms a crust like salt on rocks), and the name Peter (a reference to Jesus calling the apostle Simon the ‘rock on which he would build his church’ – hence ‘Simon Peter’).=> parsley, petrify, saltpetre
- petrol (n.)
- "gasoline," 1895, from French pétrol (1892); earlier used (1580s) in reference to the unrefined substance, from Middle French petrole "petroleum," from Old French (13c.), from Medieval Latin petroleum (see petroleum).
Example
- 1. Yet this will not compensate for falling petrol demand .
- 2. The petrol shortages are a worrying sign .
- 3. Petrol is expected to run out too .
- 4. Petrol consumption in european countries has also fallen .
- 5. Lower petrol prices have certainly boosted the republicans .