camphor

English

Etymology

From Old French camphore or Medieval Latin camphora, from Arabic كَافُور (kāfūr), via an Austronesian language such as Malay kapur from Sanskrit कर्पूर (karpūra). It is possible that the Sanskrit term was borrowed from Malay rather than vice versa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkæmfɚ/
• IPA^(key): /ˈkæmfə/

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, H. G. Wells, The Time Machine Chapter X,

     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

• camphogen
• camphorimine
• camphory
• camphoryl
• camphorate
• camphorated
• camphoraceous
• camphrous
• camphor tree

Translations

white transparent waxy crystalline isoprenoid ketone

• Acehnese: kapur
• Arabic: كَافُور (kāfūr)
• Armenian: կամֆորա (hy) (kamfora), քափուր (hy) (kʻapʻur)
• 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), 樟脑 (zh) (zhāngnǎo)

• 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 (しょうのう, shōnō), カンフル (kanfuru)
• Kannada: ಕರ್ಪೂರ (kn) (karpūra)
• Khmer: កប៌ូរ (km) (kaabou)
• Korean: 장뇌 (jangnoe) (樟腦)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: کافوور (kafûr)

  Northern Kurdish: kafûr (ku)

  Southern Kurdish: کافوور (kafûr)

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• 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: гавар (mn) (gavar), камфор (mn) (kamfor) (scientific)
• Nepali: कपुर (ne) (kapura)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kamfer m or n

  Nynorsk: kamfer m or n

• Persian: کافور (kâfur)
• Polish: kamfora (pl) f
• Portuguese: cânfora f
• Romanian: camfor (ro) n
• Russian: ка́мфора (ru) f (kámfora), камфара́ (ru) f (kamfará)
• Sanskrit: कर्पूर (sa) m or n (karpūra), कर्पूरम् m (karpūram)
• Sinhalese: කපුරු (kapuru)
• Spanish: alcanfor m
• Swahili: kafuri
• Swedish: kamfer (sv) c
• Tagalog: alkampor (tl)
• Tamil: கற்பூரம் (ta) (kaṟpūram)
• Telugu: కర్పూరము (te) (karpūramu)
• Thai: การบูร (th) (gaa-rá-buun)
• Ukrainian: ка́мфора (uk) f (kámfora)
• Vietnamese: long não (vi) (龍腦)