asbestos

views updated

as·bes·tos / asˈbestəs; az-/ • n. a heat-resistant fibrous silicate mineral that can be woven into fabrics, and is used in fire-resistant and insulating materials such as brake linings: [as adj.] asbestos shingles. ∎  fabric containing such a mineral.ORIGIN: early 17th cent.: via Latin from Greek asbestos ‘unquenchable’ (applied by Dioscurides to quicklime), from a- ‘not’ + sbestos (from sbennumi ‘quench’).

More From encyclopedia.com