camphor

English

Etymology

From Old French camphore or Medieval Latin camphora, from Arabic كَافُور (kāfūr), in turn from an Austronesian word such as Malay kapur.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkæmfɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkæmfə/

• Audio (US)

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Noun

camphor (countable and uncountable, plural camphors)

1. (organic chemistry) A white transparent waxy crystalline isoprenoid ketone, 1,7,7-trimethylbicyclo[2.2.1]heptan-2-one, with a strong pungent odour, used in pharmacy.
   • 1895 May 7, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter X, in The Time Machine: An Invention, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC:

     I fancied at first the stuff was paraffin wax, and smashed the jar accordingly. But the odour of camphor was unmistakable. It struck me as singularly odd, that among the universal decay, this volatile substance had chanced to survive, perhaps through many thousand years.

Derived terms

• bastard camphor tree
• camphogen
• camphoraceous
• camphorate
• camphorated
• camphorimine
• camphor tree
• camphory
• camphoryl
• camphrous
• rose camphor
• salol-camphor
• turpentine camphor

 

Translations

white transparent waxy crystalline isoprenoid ketone

• Acehnese: kapur
• Arabic: كَافُور (kāfūr)
• Armenian: կամֆորա (hy) (kamfora), քափուր (hy) (kʿapʿur)
• Belarusian: ка́мфара f (kámfara)
• Bulgarian: ка́мфора (bg) f (kámfora)
• Burmese: ပရုတ် (my) (pa.rut)
• Catalan: càmfora f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 樟腦／樟脑 (zh) (zhāngnǎo)

• Cornish: kamfor m
• Czech: kafr m
• Danish: kamfer c
• Dhivehi: ކާފޫރު (kāfūru)
• Dutch: kamfer (nl) m
• Esperanto: kamforo (eo)
• Faroese: kamfur n
• Finnish: kamferi (fi)
• French: camphre (fr) m
• German: Kampfer (de) m, (scientific) Campher m
• Greek: καμφορά (el) f (kamforá)
• Gujarati: કપૂર (kapūr)
• Hausa: kafur
• Hebrew: קַמפוֹר
• Hindi: कपूर (hi) m (kapūr)
• Hungarian: kámfor (hu)
• Icelandic: kamfóra f
• Indonesian: kapur barus (id), kamper (id)
• Italian: canfora (it) f
• Japanese: 樟脳 (ja) (しょうのう, shōnō), カンフル (kanfuru)
• Kannada: ಕರ್ಪೂರ (kn) (karpūra)
• Kazakh: камфора (kamfora)
• Khmer: កប៌ូរ (km) (kaabou)
• Korean: 장뇌(樟腦) (jangnoe)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: کافوور (kafûr)

  Northern Kurdish: kafûr (ku)

  Southern Kurdish: کافوور (kafûr)

• Lao: ກາລະບູນ (kā la būn)
• Latvian: kampars m
• Lithuanian: kamparas m
• Malagasy: ravintsara (mg)
• Malay: kapur barus
• Malayalam: പച്ചക്കർപ്പൂരം (paccakkaṟppūraṁ), കർപ്പൂരം (kaṟppūraṁ)
• Marathi: कापूर (kāpūr)
• Middle Persian: kʾp̄wl (kāpūr)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: гавар (mn) (gavar), камфор (mn) (kamfor) (scientific)

  Mongolian: ᠭᠠᠪᠤᠷ (ɣabur), ᠻᠠᠮᠹᠣᠷ (kamfor)

• Nepali: कपुर (ne) (kapur)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kamfer m or n

  Nynorsk: kamfer m or n

• Persian: کافور (fa) (kâfur)
• Polish: kamfora (pl) f
• Portuguese: cânfora f
• Punjabi: ਕਪੂਰ m (kapūr)
• Romanian: camfor (ro) n
• Russian: ка́мфора (ru) f (kámfora), камфара́ (ru) f (kamfará)
• Sanskrit: कर्पूर (sa) m or n (karpūra), कर्पूरम् m (karpūram)
• Shan: ပရုၵ်ႈ (pǎ rūk), ၽရူၵ်ႈ (phǎ rūuk)
• Sinhalese: කපුරු (kapuru)
• Slovak: gáfor (sk) m
• Spanish: alcanfor (es) m
• Swahili: kafuri
• Swedish: kamfer (sv) c
• Tagalog: alkampor (tl)
• Tamil: கற்பூரம் (ta) (kaṟpūram)
• Telugu: కర్పూరము (te) (karpūramu)
• Thai: การบูร (th) (gaa-rá-buun)
• Turkish: kâfur (tr)
• Ukrainian: ка́мфора (uk) f (kámfora)
• Vietnamese: long não (vi) (龍腦)
• Welsh: camffor m