A variant form of colophony; a hard, brittle resin used for violin bows and other purposes.
From Greek Kolophon through various Romance language forms. The -ane ending is a chemical or material designation similar to -ene or -yne.
Different spellings of the same substance traveled through different languages—colophane, colophony, colophene—it's like watching rosin's name get translated and retranslated across centuries!
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