Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Lac

Lac (lăk), Lakh (läk), n. [Hind. lak, lākh, lāksh, Skr. laksha a mark, sign, lakh.] One hundred thousand; also, a vaguely great number; as, a lac of rupees. [Written also lack.] [East Indies]

Lac, n. [Per. lak; akin to Skr. lākshā: cf. F. lague, It. & NL. lacca. Cf. Lake a color, Lacquer, Litmus.] A resinous substance produced mainly on the banyan tree, but to some extent on other trees, by the Coccus lacca, a scale-shaped insect, the female of which fixes herself on the bark, and exudes from the margin of her body this resinous substance.

☞ Stick-lac is the substance in its natural state, incrusting small twigs. When broken off, and the coloring matter partly removed, the granular residuum is called seed-lac. When melted, and reduced to a thin crust, it is called shell-lac or shellac. Lac is an important ingredient in sealing wax, dyes, varnishes, and lacquers.

Ceylon lac, a resinous exudation of the tree Croton lacciferum, resembling lac. — Lac dye, a scarlet dye obtained from stick-lac. — Lac lake, the coloring matter of lac dye when precipitated from its solutions by alum. — Mexican lac, an exudation of the tree Croton Draco.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.