Latex

Definitions: Latex

Latex

Noun

1. A milky exudate from certain plants that coagulates on exposure to air.

2. A water-base paint having a latex binder.

Date "latex" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1550. (references)

Etymology: Latex \La"tex\, noun. [Latin expression]. (Websters 1913)

Domain	Definitions
Computing	LaTeX (Lamport TeX) Leslie Lamport 's document preparation system built on top of TeX. LaTeX was developed at SRI International's Computer Science Laboratory and was built to resemble Scribe. LaTeX adds commands to simplify typesetting and lets the user concentrate on the structure of the text rather than on formatting commands. BibTeX is a LaTeX package for bibliographic citations. Lamport's LaTeX book has an exemplary index listing every symbol, concept and example in the book. The index in the, now obsolete, first edition includes (on page 221) the mysterious entry "Gilkerson, Ellen, 221". The second edition (1994) has an entry for "infinite loop" instead. ["LaTeX, A Document Preparation System", Leslie Lamport, A-W 1986, ISBN 0-201-15790-X (first edition, now obsolete)]. (1997-11-17). Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing.
Chemical Industry	An aqueous colloidal dispersion of rubber. Source: European Union. (references)
Food & Agriculture	A milky fluid of variable composition, generally resins, fats or waxes with a complex mixture of other substances, occurring either in ordinary parenchyma cells or in various types of laticifer. Source: European Union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

See also LaTeX, a macro package for the T_EX typesetting system.

Latex, as found in nature, is the milky sap of many plants that coagulates on exposure to air. It is a complex emulsion in which proteins, alkaloids, starches, sugars, oils, tannins, resins and gums are found. In most plants latex is white, but some have yellow, orange, or scarlet latex. Latex can also be made synthetically by polymerizing monomer that has been emulsified with surfactants.

The cells or vessels in which latex is found make up the laticiferous system, which forms in two very different ways. In many plants the laticiferous system is formed from rows of cells laid down in the meristem of the stem or root. The cell walls between these cells are dissolved so that continuous tubes, called latex vessels, are formed. This method of formation is found in the poppy family, in the rubber plant, and in the Cichorieae, a section of the Family Asteraceae distinguished by the presence of latex in its members. Dandelion, lettuce, hawkweed and salsify are members of the Cichorieae.

In the milkweed and spurge families, on the other hand, the laticiferous system is formed quite differently. Early in the development of the seedling latex cells differentiate, and as the plant grows these these latex cells grow into a branching system extending throughout the plant. In the mature plant, the entire laticiferous sytem is descended from a single cell or group of cells present in the embryo.

The laticiferous system is present in all parts of the mature plant, including roots, stems, leaves, and sometimes the fruits. It is particularly noticeable in the cortical tissues.

Latex has been attributed with many functions. Some regard it as a form of stored food, while others consider it an excretory product in which waste products of the plant are deposited. Still others believe it is primarily intended to protect the plant in case of injuries, drying to form a protective layer that prevents the entry of fungi and bacteria. Similarly, it may be a protection against browsing animals, since in some plants latex is very bitter or even poisonous. It may be that latex fulfils all of these functions to varying degrees in various different plant species.

Latex has many uses, but its first and foremost is rubber. Chicle, widely used as a base for chewing gum, is another latex product. Some paints (called latex paints) use latex as a binder. The latex used in these paints is typically made synthetically using emulsion polymerization. Finally, poppy latex is a source of opium and its many derivatives.

Some people are seriously allergic to latex, and exposure to latex or rubber products such as rubber gloves or condoms can cause anaphylactic shock.See also latex, a form of rubber or plastic.

LaTeX is a document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program.

It offers programmable desktop publishing features and extensive facilities for automating most aspects of typesetting and DTP, especially numbering and cross-referencing, tables and figures, page layout, bibliographies, and much more. LaTeX was originally written in 1984 by Leslie Lamport and has become the dominant method for using TeX; few people write in plain TeX any more. The current version is LaTeX2ε.

(Historical note: LaTeX is pronounced LAY-tekh (SAMPA: ["leitEx]) or LAH-tekh ("latEx) where kh represents the sound of ch like in German ach or Scottish loch, and traditionally printed L^AT_EX. TeX itself was written by Donald Knuth in 1978 and provided the world's first program to produce publishable quality typesetting that could be run from the desktop terminal of a normal business computer.)

LaTeX is based on the idea that authors should be able to concentrate on writing within the logical structure of their document, rather than spending their time on the details of formatting. It encourages the separation of formatting from content, whilst still allowing manual typesetting adjustments where needed. By keeping the formatting details in a separate file from the text, it is often regarded as much superior to word processors and most other desktop publishing systems.

These allow trivially easy visual layout changes, but intertwine content and form so tightly that consistency is often difficult, and automation of longer or more complex documents virtually impossible. LaTeX also provides great flexibility in formatting while maintaining the identity of structure, which purely structural systems like SGML and XML do not directly address. LaTeX can be arbitrarily extended by using the underlying macro language for developing custom formats.

LaTeX was originally most commonly used by mathematicians and scientists, amongst whom it remains the favored tool for writing papers, preprints, and books. Because of the underlying TeX system, originally developed for documents with mathematics, laying out mathematical expressions is considered to be easier, and the resulting typesetting of higher quality, than any competing document-processing systems. Many scientific journals and other publishers provide free LaTeX packages which implement their "in-house" typesetting styles. The Wiki markup for formulae uses the same system as LaTeX.

The popularity of LaTeX in the technical and academic communities is perhaps partly due to its early availability on Unix systems, and the comparative unavailability of competing word processors on those platforms until recently. But from an early stage LaTeX was available on a wider range of hardware and software than any other program, and versions are now available for almost any system from PDAss to desktop PCs to supercomputers. LaTeX is less popular than mainstream desktop publishing software outside the technical communities for several reasons. It is regarded as hard to learn for people with no previous experience of markup languages. Although it is very easy to customise the appearance of articles, books, and reports, using only a handful of instructions, it remains basically a typesetter for automating document production, not a manual page design program, so performing complex visual layouts incorporating multiple images is difficult. Another barrier to usage for many is the asynchronous interface used in most free versions, where editing is done in a different window to the typeset display. Several commercial implementations, however, use a synchronous typographic display like other DTP systems (as does LyX).

LaTeX is free software. It has a peculiar license called LPPL, not compatible with the GNU General Public License, that allows redistribution and modification, but requires that modified files carry a modified filename. This ensures that files that depend on other files will produce the expected behavior and avoids problems similar to DLL hell. A new version of the LPPL that will be compatible with the GPL is in the works. There are numerous commercial implementations of the whole TeX system (which includes LaTeX), and vendors may offer extra features like phone support and additional typefaces.

LyX is a visual document processor that uses LaTeX for a back-end. A number of popular commercial DTP systems use modified versions of the original TeX typesetting engine. The recent rise in popularity of XML systems and the demand for large-scale batch production of publication-quality typesetting from such sources has seen a steady increase in the use of LaTeX.

External links

The TeX Users Group
The LaTeX project's homepage
TeX Directory Structure, used by many (La)TeX distributions

The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted.
Entry	Source	Expression	Field
LAI	English	Latex agglutination-inhibiting	Medicine
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Synonyms: Latex

Synonyms: latex paint (n), rubber-base paint (n). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Elasticity	Rubber, India(n) rubber, latex, caoutchouc, whalebone, gum elastic, baleen, natural rubber; neoprene, synthetic rubber, Buna-S, plastic.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	With all the respect I can offer a man wearing a latex mask and spouting conspiracy theories, believe me you've crossed that bridge. (Vanilla Sky; writing credit: Alejandro Amenábar; Mateo Gil) I talk to myself, I talk to my cats, I talk to three separate shrinks about the fact that often my cats respond to me in my mother's voice and, yesterday, when that stupid, pretty surgical nurse handed you a pair of latex gloves I almost killed the guy who's leg I was stitching up because I couldn't stop thinking about the two of you having sex on a box of steaks. (Scrubs; writing credit: Gabrielle Allan; Janae Bakken) When we have a problem, I don't paint Greg in latex and stick a straw up his nose. (C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation; writing credit: Kenta Fukasaku; Koshun Takami)
Lyrics	Pushing it all out like latex cartoon, am I all alone in this generation? ("Birdland"; performing artist: Patti Smith)
Movie/TV Titles	Latex (1995) Leather & Lace Latex (1993) Latex Foot Torture (1993) Journey Into Latex (1992) Night Shift Latex Slaves (1991)
Song Titles	Latex Man (performing artist: Steven Brust)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
References	Fuji Latex Co., Ltd.: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference) The 2000 Import and Export Market for Natural Rubber, Rubber Latex, and Similar Natural Gums in The Middle East (reference) The 2003 World Forecasts of Synthetic and Reclaimed Rubber, Rubber Latex and Waste Scrap Export Supplies (reference) The 2002 World Market Forecasts for Imported Natural Rubber, Rubber Latex, and Similar Natural Gums (reference) The 2000 Import and Export Market for Synthetic Rubber Latex and Oil-derived Factice in Sweden (reference) (more reference examples)

Books	First Steps in LaTeX (reference) Latex for LINUX (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Shock and Latex [SOUNDTRACK] [EXPLICIT LYRICS] [LIVE] (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Consumer Goods	Wells Lamont 533XL Men's Latex Coated Knit Glove (XL) (reference) (more baby examples; more wireless phone examples; more garden examples; more kitchen examples; more tool examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	In her laboratory, plant physiologist Katrina Cornish checks seedlings produced for use in experiments to improve guayule plants. The experimental, allergen-free latex products shown were made from guayule. P.Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Jack Dykinga..		Condoms Mean Caring : Latex Condoms...Prevention Against AIDS.Credit: National Library of Medicine.
	During sex, use a latex condom and a lubricant with nonoxynol-9 / [Mike] Wilson.Credit: National Library of Medicine.		Always Use Latex Condoms.Credit: National Library of Medicine.
	Practice safe sex use a latex.Credit: National Library of Medicine.		Here is one of the old-fashioned rolling machines which may still be found, in diminishing quantity in rubber plants in the Netherlands East Indies. These workers are flattening latex slices into sheet for shipment.Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Play	Caption
	Doctor putting on latex gloves.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		Persons with multiple sex partners should be advised to use latex condoms. (references)
		The consistent and correct use of latex condoms can help protect against infection. (references)
		Use a latex condom properly, every time you have sexual intercourse, with every partner. (references)
Business		Cargo handled at Songkhla port includes mainly frozen seafood, rubber, canned foods, and latex products. (references)
		Cargoes handled Phuket port are mainly metal crate, mineral, petroleum coke, frozen fish, rubber, and latex product. (references)
		Germany's BASF set up a JV in Shanghai's Gaoqiao to produce SBR latex; and Henkel set up a JV in Tianjin, Siping, and Guilin to produce synthetic household cleaning products, and one in Shanghai to produce industrial surfactants, adhesives and sealants, and textile auxiliaries. (references)
Economic History	Sri Lanka	In order to overcome the problems in the rubber sector, Sri Lankan rubber producers are increasingly shifting to the production of crepe rubber and centrifuged latex. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Latex" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 94.03% of the time. "Latex" is used about 67 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	94.03%	63	42,364
Lexical Verb (base form)	2.99%	2	245,945
Lexical Verb (infinitive)	1.49%	1	339,140
Noun (proper)	1.49%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	67	N/A

Country	Name
Japan	Fuji Latex Co., Ltd.
	(more examples...)

Expressions using "latex": Latex Allergy ♦ Latex Fixation Tests ♦ latex paint. Additional references.
Hyphenated Usage
	Beginning with "latex": latex-backed, latex-coated.
	Containing "latex": fluorescein-latex-labelled.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "latex"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		lëng qumështor, qumësht (milk). (various references)

Arabic		‏لبن الشجر, ‏اللثى لبن الشجر. (various references)

Bulgarian		латексов, латекс. (various references)

Chinese		乳汁 (lactic). (various references)

Czech		latex. (various references)

Danish		latex, mælkesaft. (various references)

Dutch		latex. (various references)

Esperanto		latekso. (various references)

Farsi		لاستیک خام , شیره گیاهی (Milk, Sap), شیرابه (Emulsion), بالاستیک ساختن . (various references)

Finnish		maitiaisneste. (various references)

French		latex. (various references)

German		milchsaft (chyle), latex. (various references)

Greek		latex, κόμμι (gum), γαλακτώδησ χυμόσ, χυμός καουτσουκόδενδρου, λατέξ. (various references)

Hebrew		שרף �'ומי. (various references)

Hungarian		latex (rubber gum, rubber latex), kaucsuktej (rubber gum, rubber latex), gumitej (rubber latex). (various references)

Indonesian		getah (fatex, gland secretion, mucilage, sap). (various references)

Italian		latice. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		ラタン家具 (lacquer, ladder, lap, lap time, laptop, LASH, latch, Latin, Latin America, Latin-American, latitude, lucky, lucky seventh, lucky zone, rack, rap, Rassa, rat, rattan furniture, ruck, rudder, ruffle, rush, rush hour, rush print, Russell, wrap, wrap-around, wraparound skirt, wrapping), 乳状液 (milky juice), 乳液 , 乳汁 (milk, milky juice). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		ラテックス , にゅうじゅう (milk, milky juice), にゅうじょうえき (milky juice), にゅうえき. (various references)

Korean		� 액. (various references)

Pig Latin		atexlay

Portuguese		látice, látex (gum, lath), movimento lateral. (various references)

Russian		латекс. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		lateks, mlečna tečnost koja se steže na vazduhu. (various references)

Spanish		látex. (various references)

Swedish		latex. (various references)

Thai		ยางสีขาวคล้ายน้ำนมจากพืช. (various references)

Turkish		lateks, kauçuk ham maddesi. (various references)

Ukranian		молочний сік (chyle), латекс (milk). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Greek	700 BCE-300 CE	latax. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "latex": latexes. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Latex" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: alitex, altec, atex, catex, datex, fatex, Jaytex, labex, ladex, laeti, lastex, latea, lated, latee, laten, lattex, Lawtex, liet, litem, luke. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "latex" (pronounced lā"te'ks)
4	-t e' k s	biotechs, vertex, videotex.
3	-e' k s	annex, apex, bottlenecks, Cineplex, duplex, metroplex, multiplex, paychecks, rednecks, roughnecks, simplex, telex, tenrecs, turtlenecks, unisex.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Direct Anagrams: exalt.
	Words within the letters "a-e-l-t-x"
	-1 letter: axel, axle, late, tael, tale, teal, tela.
	-2 letters: ale, alt, ate, axe, eat, eta, lat, lax, lea, let, lex, tae, tax, tea, tel.
	-3 letters: ae, al, at, ax, el, et, ex, la, ta.
	Words containing the letters "a-e-l-t-x"
	+1 letter: exalts, laxest, luxate.
	+2 letters: dextral, exactly, exalted, exalter, explant, latexes, luxated, luxates, oxalate, taxable, taxless, textual.
	+3 letters: acetoxyl, anthelix, axletree, exalters, exalting, excretal, exhalant, exhalent, explants, external, exultant, flaxiest, fluxgate, laxative, laxities, oxalated, oxalates, plateaux, relaxant, saxatile, tableaux, taxables, textural.
	+4 letters: acetoxyls, axletrees, catalexes, catalexis, cataplexy, epitaxial, exactable, exaltedly, excitable, exculpate, exfoliate, exhalants, exhalents, explanted, explicate, externals, extrality, exultance, exultancy, fluxgates, inexactly, laxatives, lixiviate, luxuriate, metaxylem, pixilated, plaintext, relaxants, saltboxes, sexuality, telotaxes, telotaxis, textually, transaxle.
	+5 letters: anthelixes, antisexual, asexuality, axialities, contextual, curtalaxes, exactingly, exaltation, exculpated, exculpates, executable, exegetical, exfoliated, exfoliates, exhalation, exhilarate, exothermal, exotically, expectable, expectably, explanting, explicated, explicates, explicator, exportable, extemporal, extendable, externally, extralegal, extramural, extricable, extrudable, exultances, exultantly, exultation, lexicality, lixiviated, lixiviates, luxuriated, luxuriates, metagalaxy, metaxylems, naltrexone, nontaxable, paclitaxel, pixillated, plaintexts, relaxation, subtextual, texturally, toadflaxes, transaxles.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

4C 61 74 65 78

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)

⁼

Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)

Braille (1829, in France) (references)

Morse Code (1836) (references)

.-.. .- - . -..-

Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01001100 01100001 01110100 01100101 01111000

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#76 &#97 &#116 &#101 &#120

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

004C 0061 0074 0065 0078

British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

Expression	Frequency per Day
latex	2,665
latex fetish	1,542
latex clothing	687
latex allergy	364
latex gloves	355
liquid latex	322
latex mattress	255
latex cat suit	207
dream latex	201
lingerie latex	173
latex gallery	168
latex sex	162
latex bondage	158
latex babe	152
latex balloon	144
latex girl	135
latex dress	119
latex lesbian	97
latex mask	81
latex boot	79
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Latex

Definitions: Latex

Latex

Noun

Specialty Definitions: Latex

Specialty Definition: Latex

Abbreviations & Acronyms: Latex

Synonyms: Latex

Synonyms within Context: Latex

Elasticity

Crosswords: Latex

Modern Usage: Latex

Screenplays

Lyrics

Movie/TV Titles

Song Titles

Commercial Usage: Latex

References

Books

Music

Consumer Goods

Image Slideshow: Latex

Computer Images:Latex

Photo Album: Latex

Sounds Captioned with "Latex".

Non-Fiction Usage: Latex

Usage Frequency: Latex

Usage in Company Names: Latex

Fuji Latex Co., Ltd.

Expressions: Latex

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Latex

latex

latex fetish

latex clothing

latex allergy

latex gloves

liquid latex

latex mattress

latex cat suit

dream latex

lingerie latex

latex gallery

latex sex

latex bondage

latex babe

latex balloon

latex girl

latex dress

latex lesbian

latex mask

latex boot

Modern Translations: Latex

Albanian

Arabic

Bulgarian

Chinese

Czech

Danish

Dutch

Esperanto

Farsi

Finnish

French

German

Greek

Hebrew

Hungarian

Indonesian

Italian

Japanese Kanji

Japanese Katakana

Korean

Pig Latin

Portuguese

Russian

Serbo-Croatian

Spanish

Swedish

Thai

Turkish

Computer Images:
Latex