[irreg. f. Gr. κηρός wax + -ENE.] A mixture of liquid hydrocarbons, a commercial product of the distillation of petroleum; obtained also from coal and bituminous shale, and extensively used as a lamp-oil.
First manufactured by Abraham Gesner, shortly after 1846 (1865 Gesner, Coal, Petrol., etc. 9), and frequently called kerosene oil. Also commonly known as petroleum, which properly denotes the crude mineral oil from which kerosene is obtained. But the usual name is paraffin oil or paraffin; sometimes American paraffin (oil) is used to distinguish kerosene from the oil obtained from British shales.
1854. A. Gesner, in U.S. Patent Rep., 462. The new product or composition of hydrocarbon for illuminating and other purposes called … Kerocene.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Kerosene, a liquid hydro-carbon obtained from a species of bituminous shale in New Brunswick.
1864. Eliz. Murray, Ella Norman, II. 206. He had brought in … a large tin of kerosine, to fill up and light the lamps in the bar.
1881. Watts, Dict. Chem., VIII. 1509. Illuminating Oil, Petroleum, Kerosene, Paraffin Oil, Refined Paraffin, has a large and increasing consumption for lamps, etc.
1894. Dublin Rev., Oct., 434. The American oil gives about 80 per cent. of kerosene.
b. attrib. and Comb., as kerosene lamp, -manufacturer, oil, shale, spectrum, works, etc.
1863. Dicey, Federal St., I. 21. A store of Kerozene oil had caught fire.
1876. Daily News, 22 Aug., 6/4. He lost his kerosene stove, and his square sail by the upset.
1879. W. F. Stevenson, in Gd. Words, March, 164/1. Pots and pans, vessels of wood, kerosene lamps.
1889. V. Schumann, in Anthony’s Photogr. Bull., II. 395. The color sensitiveness of a photographic plate … judged by a kerosene spectrum.
1896. Mrs. Croker, Village Tales, 221. Treasure, which was buried in a kerosene-oil tin.
