latex

Meanings

1. A clear liquid believed to be a component of a humour or other bodily fluid (esp. plasma and lymph).
2. The milky sap of several trees that coagulates on exposure to air; used to make rubber.
3. An emulsion of rubber in water, used in adhesives and the like.
4. Natural latex rubber, especially nonvulcanized rubber, such as is used in making latex gloves, latex condoms, and latex clothing.

1. A digital typesetting system for mathematical and scientific formulae layout, based on TeX; often stylized as LaTeX.

Etymology

Borrowed from New Latin latex (“clear fluid which is part of a humour or bodily fluid”), a later use of Latin latex (“water; liquid, fluid”). Potentially a borrowing from Ancient Greek λᾰ́τᾰξ (lắtăx, “drop of wine”), reformed by analogy to other nouns in -ex. The semantic shift, however, from drop of wine to water is difficult to explain and may indicate that both words originated from a separate language. Perhaps from the same root as Proto-Celtic *latis (Old Irish laith (“liquid, beer”), Welsh llad (“beer”)) or Proto-Germanic *ladjō- (Old High German letto (“clay, loam”), Old Norse leðja (“mud, dregs”)) or from a Pre-Greek language.