Linoleic adj. Pertaining to, or derived from, linoleum, or linseed oil; specifically (Chem.), designating an organic acid, a thin yellow oil, found combined as a salt of glycerin in oils of linseed, poppy, hemp, and certain nuts.
... "unsaturated." The first, which have the least hydrogen, are the most eager for more. If hydrogen is not handy they will take up other things, for instance oxygen. Linseed oil, which consists largely, as the name implies, of linoleic acid, will absorb oxygen on exposure to the air and become hard. That is why it is used in painting. Such oils are called "drying" oils, although the hardening process is not really drying, since they contain no water, but is oxidation. The "semi-drying oils," those that ... — Creative Chemistry - Descriptive of Recent Achievements in the Chemical Industries • Edwin E. Slosson
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