8 October 2018

copal

[koh-puh l, -pal]

noun

1. a hard, lustrous resin obtained from various tropical trees and used chiefly in making varnishes.

Origin of copal

Mexican Spanish Nahuatl

1570-1580; < Mexican Spanish < Nahuatl copalli

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for copal

Historical Examples

Their base is copal, a fossil, resinous substance of vegetable origin.
Handwork in Wood
William Noyes

Use with oil on shellac and with oil or water on copal varnish.
Handwork in Wood
William Noyes

This they smeared with a paint made by the admixture of camwood and copal gum.
Bones
Edgar Wallace

It is principally employed in the preparation of copal varnish.
A Treatise on Domestic Economy
Catherine Esther Beecher

Father Brandsma is devoting some of his energy to a change in copal gathering.
An African Adventure
Isaac F. Marcosson

The pieces of copal recovered are in some cases as large as a human head.
The American Egypt
Channing Arnold

copal, dissolved in methylated spirits, will prove the most satisfactory.
Three Hundred Things a Bright Boy Can Do
Anonymous

The varnish should consist of copal in highly rectified spirit.
Cooley’s Practical Receipts, Volume II
Arnold Cooley

These bowls were used as censers, for some are still filled with copal.
The Ancient Cities of the New World
Dsir Charnay

Dr Seler concludes “that it denotes the copal or the offering of incense.”
Day Symbols of the Maya Year
Cyrus Thomas

Today’s quote

Man has set for himself the goal of conquering the world but in the processes loses his soul.

– Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

On this day

8 October 1769 – Captain James Cook lands at Poverty Bay, New Zealand.

8 October 1939 – birth of Paul Hogan, Australian actor.

8 October 1970 – Soviet dissident author, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wins Nobel Price for Literature. Author of ‘The Gulag Archipelago‘.

8 October 1971 – John Lennon releases the iconic song, ‘Imagine’.

8 October 1980 – Bob Marley collapses on stage in New York. The following day he collapses while jogging in Central Park. He is diagnosed with a brain tumour, which developed from a melanoma that had spread from his toe. He died on 11 May 1981.