# alum
## English
### Alternative forms

* alumn

### Etymology 1

From Middle English alum, alum, alym, alyme, from Anglo-Norman alum, alun, from Latin alūmen.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈæl.əm/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Homophone: Allam

#### Noun

alum (countable and uncountable, plural alums)
* An astringent salt, usually occurring in the form of pale crystals, much used in the dyeing and tanning trade and in certain medicines, and now understood to be a double sulphate of potassium and aluminium (K$_2$SO$_4$·Al$_2$(SO$_4$)$_3$·24H$_2$O). [from 14th c.]
** 1991, Felix Gilbert, The Pope, His Banker, and Venice, page 80:Venice also needed alum for trade, since it was the point of departure for overland transportation of alum to southern Germany and its cloth-manufacturing Free Cities.
** 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 201:A natural astringent and antiseptic, potassium alum was coveted for its medicinal and cosmetic properties.
* (inorganic chemistry) Any similar double sulphate in which either or both of the potassium and aluminium is wholly or partly replaced by other univalent or tervalent cations. [from 17th c.]
** 1807, William Nicholson, editor, A Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and the Arts, volume XVIII, page 286:With weld and cochineal, which are colouring matters the most sensible to the action of sulphate of iron, the purified alums gave us colours more brilliant, fresh, and in a slight degree lighter; while those with our common alums were all duller, and evidently of a deeper hue.
** 2000 June, Competition Science Vision, page 486:For similar reasons, aluminium sulphate and alums are used in dyeing cloth. […] Normally alums are soluble in water and insoluble in alcohols.
** 2005, Amit Arora, Text Book Of Inorganic Chemistry, page 386:In structure, the alums consist of simple ions, being not complexes, but double salts. Potash alum or potassium alum is the common alum, with the formula KAl(SO$_4$)$_2$·12H$_2$O) which, for convenience, may be written K$_2$SO$_4$·Al$_2$(SO$_4$)$_3$·24H$_2$O

##### Synonyms

* (double sulphate of potassium and aluminum): potash alum

##### Translations
#### Derived terms

* alum-basket
* alum cake
* alum earth
* alumed
* alumiferous
* alumina
* aluming
* alumish
* alumium
* alum mine
* alumocalcite
* alum rock, Alum Rock
* alumroot
* alum root
* alum schist
* alum shale
* alum slate
* alumstone
* alum stone
* alum works
* ammonia alum
* burnt alum
* cake alum
* carmalum
* chrome alum
* chrome-ammonia alum
* common alum
* feather alum
* filter alum
* hemalum
* iron alum
* magnesia alum
* manganese alum
* manganoso-magnesium alum
* native alum
* papermaker's alum
* plume alum
* potash alum
* pseudo alum
* rock alum
* Roman alum
* saccharine alum
* silver alum
* soda alum
* sodium alum
* unalumed

#### Related terms

* aluminiferous, aluniferous
* aluminiform
* aluminilite
* aluminise, aluminize
* aluminite
* aluminous
* alunite
* alunogen

#### See also

* apjohnite
* bosjemanite
* halotrichite
* kalinite
* websterite

#### Verb

alum (third-person singular simple present alums, present participle aluming, simple past and past participle alumed)
* (transitive) To steep in, or otherwise impregnate with, a solution of alum; to treat with alum.
** 1839, Andrew Ure, A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines:The silk should be boiled at the rate of 20 parts of soap per cent. , and then alumed. The aluming need not be so strong as for the fine crimson
** 1979, Kax Wilson, A History of Textiles, Westview Press, →ISBN, page 90:After drying, the cloth was alumed and finally dyed.

##### Derived terms

* unalumed

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

From alumnus and alumna (> alumn- > alum), by the removal of the originally Latin gender-specific nominative singular case endings -us (masculine) and -a (feminine).

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /əˈlʌm/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -ʌm

#### Noun

alum (plural alums or alumni)
* (shortening, Canada, US) A past attendee or graduate (of any gender) of a college, university or other educational institution.
** 1961 Spring, Anchora of Delta Gamma, Volume LXXVII, No. 3, page 59,
    Evanston-North Shore alums are happy to open their homes to Sigma actives for special social events.
** 2006, Ted Hart, James M. Greenfield, Pamela M. Gignac, Christopher Carnie, Major Donors: Finding Big Gifts in Your Database and Online, page 47:You'll remember that we're starting with a list of slightly over 7,000 names that are alums (most of them over 50) that we'd like to whittle down to a manageable list of prospects.
** 2009, Timothy C. Jacobson, Charity & Merit: Trinity School at 300, page 190:All schools that last have alums, and, ancient as it was by American standards, Trinity by mid-century had thousands.

##### Synonyms

* (of any gender): alumni (often proscribed), alumnx

##### Hyponyms

* (the original Latin gender-specific loanwords): alumna (feminine), alumnus (of unspecified gender or masculine)

### Anagrams

* Mula, malu, Luma, Lamu, Ulam, mula, luma, maul

## Indonesian
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈa.lum/, [ˈa.lʊm]
* Rhymes: -lʊm
* Hyphenation: a‧lúm

### Etymology 1

Borrowed from Javanese ꦲꦭꦸꦩ꧀ (alum, “not shining, wilted; weak; almost healed”), from Old Javanese alum, alūm, alöm (“withered”), probably from Proto-Mon-Khmer [Term?].

#### Adjective

alum
* wither
    Synonym: layu
* livid

#### Noun

alum (plural alum-alum)
* bruise
    Synonyms: lebam, memar

### Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

#### Noun

alum (plural alum-alum)
* coir for washing kitchen utensils, made from synthetic fibers with a rough texture
    Synonym: tapas

### Etymology 3

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

#### Noun

alum (plural alum-alum)
* seven-eyed boil

### Further reading

* “alum” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

## Javanese
### Romanization

alum
* Romanization of ꦲꦭꦸꦩ꧀

## Latin
### Etymology

Unknown.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈaː.lum/, [ˈäːɫ̪ʊ̃ˑ]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈa.lum/, [ˈäːlum]

### Noun

ālum n (genitive ālī); second declension
* garlic
* species of comfrey plant

#### Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

#### Synonyms

* (garlic, species of comfrey plant): ālus

### References

* alum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* “alum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press

## Latvian
### Noun

alum m
* dative singular of alus

## Middle English
### Noun

alum
* Alternative form of alym

## Old English
### Noun

ālum
* dative plural of āl

## Old French
### Alternative forms

* allum, alun

### Etymology

From Latin alūmen.

### Noun

alum oblique singular, m (oblique plural aluns, nominative singular aluns, nominative plural alum)
* alum

#### Descendants

* French: alun
* → Middle English: alym, alyme, alum, alume, alumme, alom, alome
** English: alum
** Scots: aum, awm, alm
* → Old High German: alūne
** Middle High German: alūn
*** German: Alaun

### References

* alum on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub