pontianac

See also: Pontianac

English

Etymology

From Pontianac, an older spelling of Pontianak, a port city in West Kalimantan, from which the resin was shipped, named for the ghostly pontianaks which supposedly once inhabited the site.

Noun

pontianac (countable and uncountable, plural pontianacs)

1. A fossil resin historically used in the production of some rubber, produced from the latex of Dyera costulata.
   • 1919, Bulletin of the Imperial Institute - Volume 17, page 295:

     A firm of manufacturers to whom a sample of the Galactodendron latex was submitted considered that the material could be used in the rubber industry as a substitute for pontianac.

   • 1926, Lothar E. Weber, The Chemistry of Rubber Manufacture, page 22:

     Some fifteen years ago enterprising technologists found that the rubber in pontianac was a very satisfactory material from the commercial standpoint, so much so that its extraction from the pontianac by deresination would be commercially sound, in view of the then obtaining price of crude rubber, provided an efficient method of extraction could be developed.

   • 1930, Rosin in Synthetic Resins, page 48:

     Glycerol, partially esterified with abietic acid is preferred although glycerol, etc., esterified with rosin, Congo, manila, the pontianacs, the shellacs, kauri, copal or other fossil resins may be used.

   • 1937, Carroll Campbell Davis, John Twiss Blake, The Chemistry and Technology of Rubber, page 857:

     If the acetone extract is brittle, the presence of a resin is indicated. It may be either rosin, coumarone resin or pontianac resin.

Alternative forms

• pontianak

Synonyms

• dead Borneo, gutta jelutong, gambria, jelutong, bresk, fluvia

Derived terms

• pontianac copal
• pontianac gum
• pontianac jelutong
• pontianac resin
• pontianac rubber

References

• “pontianac”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.