asbestos

• n. アスベスト
• adj.アスベスト

ギリシャ語から。接頭辞 a-、できない、しない。古くは生石灰の意味で使われた。後に、植物学者プリニウスがアスベストを指す言葉として誤って使用したが、実際には、空気清浄電気集塵装置の外部断熱材などに広く使用されている、非常に不燃性の物質である。

asbestos

asbestos: [14] Originally, the word we now know as asbestos was applied in the Middle Ages to a mythical stone which, once set alight, could never be put out; it came from the Greek compound ásbestos, literally ‘inextinguishable’, which was formed from the prefix a- ‘not’ and sbestós, a derivative of the verb sbennúnai ‘extinguish’. However, by the time it first came into English, its form was not quite what it is today.

To begin with, it was the Greek accusative form, ásbeston, that was borrowed, and in its passage from Latin through Old French it developed several variants, including asbeston and albeston, most of which turned up in English. Then, in the early 17th century, the word was reborrowed from the original Greek source, ásbestos, and applied to a noncombustible silicate mineral.

asbestos (n.)

1650s, earlier albeston, abestus (c. 1100), name of a fabulous stone, which, set afire, could not be extinguished; from Old French abeste, abestos, from Latin asbestos "quicklime" (which "burns" when cold water is poured on it), from Greek asbestos, literally "inextinguishable," from a- "not" (see a- (3)) + sbestos, verbal adjective from sbennynai "to quench," from PIE root *(s)gwes- "to quench, extinguish" (cognates: Lithuanian gestu "to go out," Old Church Slavonic gaso, Hittite kishtari "is being put out").

The Greek word was used by Dioscorides as a noun meaning "quicklime." "Erroneously applied by Pliny to an incombustible fibre, which he believed to be vegetable, but which was really the amiantos of the Greeks" [OED]. Meaning "mineral capable of being woven into incombustible fabric" is from c. 1600 in English; earlier this was called amiant (early 15c.), from Latin amiantus, from Greek amiantos, literally "undefiled" (so called because it showed no mark or stain when thrown into fire). Supposed in the Middle Ages to be salamanders' wool. Prester John, the Emperor of India, and Pope Alexander III were said to have had robes or tunics made of it.

1. The prospectors have discovered such minerals as calcite，quartz and asbestos here.

探鉱員はここで方解石、石英、石綿などの鉱物を発見した。

2. Asbestos can be used to insulate a cooking stove.

アスベストは調理用のコンロを断熱するために使用できる。

3.Breathing asbestos ?laden air may be hazardous to health.

呼吸アスベストを充填した空気は健康に有害である可能性がある。

4.They claim the council has prejudiced their health by failing to deal with asbestos .

彼らは、理事会がアスベストの問題を処理していないため、健康を害していると主張している。

5.Blue asbestos is far less common in buildings，which is just as well because it 's more dangerous than white asbestos .

ブルーアスベストは建築中ではあまり見られないが、白石綿よりも危険が多いので幸いだ。