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The
name for 'rubber' in most Indo-European languages except English
is derived from the Amerindian name for rubber trees: cachuchu:
'weeping wood'. This is certainly more apt than the anomalous
English name, which is derived from what is a minor attribute
of the material: its ability to erase (rub out) pencil marks.
The English name is attributed to the great British scientist,
Joseph Priestley.
ORIGIN
The Spanish name (caucho) serves to remind us of the ecological
origin of the majority of rubber-bearing plants, because
Spain was the principal colonial power in Tropical America
at the time when rubber started to become known in Europe.
Long before that time, rubber was widely known (Schurer,
1957) within the ancient civilizations of Central and South
America and was used in rituals. Effigies were made from
it and it was burnt as an unpleasant form of incense. The
word used to describe rubber was associated with blood:
the Mayan word for blood, olli or ulli, also stood for the
effusion from Castilla elastica.
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