isinglass

[prettygoodword]

isinglass - n., a semitransparent, whitish gelatin prepared from the air bladders of sturgeon and certain other fishes, used as a clarifying agent for wines, making jellies, and glue. Mica in very thin sheets.


Not so much for the jellies anymore, what with the commercial availability of gelatin, and it always was an expensive glue, but it's still used as a clarifying agent. A traditional product of Belarus and the region around it. From at least 1535, from Dutch huizenblas (altered under the influence of glass), from Middle Dutch huusblase, from huus, sturgeon + blase, bladder. Which should get some record for most prosaic etymology for such an interesting word.

---L.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

First heard this word in Bored of the Rings, as the parody name for Isingard. It was about a decade later that I found out what it really was.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

And then there's the horse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isinglass_(horse)) and the river (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isinglass_River).

---L.