Other forms: tars
Tar is a thick black sticky substance used to seal roads. Melting tar, tar and gravel, the smell of tar.
Road surfacing is mostly bitumen rather than true tar, though the old name sticks in tarmac. The tar in tobacco smoke is what is left when the gases are removed and it is a main cause of the harm. Tar and feathering was a punishment. Note the word comes from a root meaning tree.
1nountarA thick black sticky substance used to seal surfaces.
“The workers spread hot tar on the roof to stop the rain getting in.”
tar is a substance.
Old English teoru comes from a Germanic root related to the word for tree, because tar was made from pine wood.
Proto-Indo-European
*dóru
Middle English
ter
English, today
tar
Built from
From Middle English ter. From Middle English ter, terr, tarr, from Old English teoru, from Proto-West Germanic teru, from Proto-Germanic terwą, from Proto-Indo-European derwo-, from dóru (“tree”). See also stq Taar, West Frisian tarre, tar, Dutch teer, German Teer; also Welsh derw (“oaks”), Lithuanian dervà (“pinewood, resin”), Russian де́рево (“tree”), Bulgarian дърво́ (“tree”). More at tree.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA