asphalt
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S: EAPA – https://eapa.org/what-is-asphalt/ (last access: 3 May 2025); HOLCIM – https://www.holcim.co.uk/blog/what-is-asphalt (last access: 3 May 2025).

N: 1. early 14c., “hard, resinous mineral pitch found originally in Biblical lands,” from Late Latin asphaltum, from Greek asphaltos “asphalt, bitumen,” probably from a non-Greek source, possibly Semitic (Klein, citing Lewy, 1895). Another theory holds it to be from Greek a- “not” + *sphaltos “able to be thrown down,” taken as verbal adjective of sphallein “to throw down,” in reference to a use of the material in building.
Meaning “paving composition” dates from 1847 and its popular use in this sense established the modern form of the English word, displacing in most senses asphaltum, asphaltos. As a verb meaning “to cover with asphalt,” from 1872. Related: Asphaltic.

2. black or brown petroleum-like material that has a consistency varying from viscous liquid to glassy solid. It is obtained either as a residue from the distillation of petroleum or from natural deposits. Asphalt consists of compounds of hydrogen and carbon with minor proportions of nitrogen, sulfur, and oxygen. Natural asphalt (also called brea), which is believed to be formed during an early stage in the breakdown of organic marine deposits into petroleum, characteristically contains minerals, while residual petroleum asphalt does not.

3. The use of asphalt is very old, dating back to its use as a water stop between brick walls of a reservoir at Mohenjo-Daro (about the 3rd millennium bc) in Pakistan. In the Middle East it was extensively used for paving roads and sealing waterworks, important applications even today.

4. Road Construction Materials: plant mix, coated material, bituminous coated material, pre-mix, asphalt (Great Britain).

  • Mixture produced in an asphalt mixing plant that consists of mineral aggregate uniformly coated with asphalt cement or liquid asphalt.
  • Plant mix. … The process involves the assembly of excellent aggregates in several sizes, … heating to temperatures of 300-400 °F (150-200° C) and mixing, in a central plant, with the proper quantity of asphalt cement or semisolid tar also at elevated temperature. The resulting compound is hauled to the roadway where it is placed by a laying machine or paver and thoroughly rolled before the mixture cools.
  • asphalt: … a bituminous substance mixed with crushed rock for paving.
  • coated material: term often found in plural.
  • French equivalents: enrobé, enrobé bitumineux, enrobé hydrocarboné, matériau enrobé, granulat enrobé, produit enrobé.

5. Petroleum Asphalts; Black Products (Petroleum); Crude Oil and Petroleum Products: bitumen, asphalt (United States), crude bitumen.

  • Very viscous or nearly solid, virtually involatile, adhesive and waterproofing material derived from crude petroleum, or present in natural bitumen, which is completely or nearly completely soluble in toluene and completely soluble in carbon disulfide. [Definition standardized by ISO.]
  • In the USA, “asphalt” is used for “bitumen” whereas it is used in the UK for a bituminous mixture.
  • asphalt: In America the term is used both for the naturally occurring product and that obtained from the distillation of petroleum.
  • bitumen; asphalt: terms standardized by ISO.
  • French equivalents: bitume, asphalte, bitume naturel.

6. Road Construction Materials; Road Construction: asphalt.

  • A dark brown to black bituminous material prepared by pyrolysis from tar and petroleum, which melts on heating and is soluble in gasoline.
  • Widely used for paving, roofing, paints and varnishes.
  • French equivalents: asphalte, bitume, goudron.

7. Petroleum Asphalts; Black Products (Petroleum): asphalt, artificial asphalt, bitumen.

  • A brown to black solid or semi-solid bituminous substance occurring in nature, but also obtained as the residue from the refining of certain petroleums and then known as artificial asphalt.
  • In America the term [asphalt] is used both for the naturally occurring product and that obtained from the distillation of petroleum. Elsewhere the artificial asphalt is usually called bitumen
  • French equivalents: asphalte artificiel, asphalte synthétique.

8. Chemistry; Paints and Varnishes (Industries): asphalt.

  • Black to dark-brown solid or half-solid cementitious material which gradually liquifies when heated and in which the predominating constituents are bitumen …
  • French equivalent: bitume.

9. Cultural Interrelation: As a metafor “asphalt jungle” means that urban environment is wild. In that case, we can mention the movie The Asphalt Jungle (1950) directed by John Huston.

S: 1. Etymonline – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=asphalt&searchmode=none (last access: 2 September 2014). 2 & 3. EncBrit – http://global.britannica.com/science/asphalt-material (last access: 2 September 2014). 4 to 8. TERMIUM PLUS (last access: 3 May 2025). 9. Filmsite – http://www.filmsite.org/asph.html (last access: 2 April 2015); FCB.

SYN:
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CR: bitumen, bituminous coal, coal, coke, natural gas, petroleum, pitch, tar.