this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2025
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[–] MotoAsh@lemmy.world 68 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

Naphtha and benzene are actually different chemicals, though...

Yea yea I know they're all hydrocarbons but it's still funny.

[–] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 35 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

AfaIk, Naphta is just a relatively light fraction of crude oil, i.e. a mixture of different chemicals, not gaseous, but partly volatile.

In Germany, fuel (Ottokraftstoff) is called Benzin, and was originally a mixture of 60 % Benzin (Naphta, alkanes and cyclic alkanes) and 40 % Benzene (Benzol).

[–] pirat@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 11 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Nikolaus Otto was the inventor of the four-stroke internal combustion engine.

[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 31 points 2 weeks ago

Benzene and Benzine are not the same thing. I don't like what the creator did here.

[–] TabbsTheBat@pawb.social 21 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

In my country nafta is crude oil, and benzinas is gasoline, which afaik neither is actually "correct"

[–] edwardbear@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

We call diesel fuel “naphtha” and gasoline is benzene.

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[–] ggtdbz@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 weeks ago

Huh. That’s how it kind of is in Arabic.

I never put it together that what we call “Naft/Nuft” (نَفط) is related to Naphtha. Fuel is “Benzeen” (بنزين).

[–] OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

Gasoline is an odd choice as well

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[–] crt0o@discuss.tchncs.de 29 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Essence sounds so fucking cool, like some offering to appease the machine gods

[–] Blackout@fedia.io 26 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

China is a pretty big country to just skip like this lol. They call it Qiyou

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 12 points 2 weeks ago

I guess they just skipped countries that have a unique name for it

[–] lime@feddit.nu 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] Blackout@fedia.io 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Liters. Last time I was there it was under $1/liter

[–] lime@feddit.nu 26 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] Blackout@fedia.io 18 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It translates to steam oil

[–] lime@feddit.nu 17 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

i see! thanks. so it's basically the same word as gas-oline then?

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[–] gigachad@sh.itjust.works 25 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

A gas is not a liquid, change my mind

[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 46 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)
[–] tal 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substitute_natural_gas

Substitute natural gas (SNG), or synthetic natural gas, is a fuel gas (predominantly methane, CH4) that can be produced from fossil fuels such as lignite coal, oil shale, or from biofuels (when it is named bio-SNG) or using electricity with power-to-gas systems.

So we've got "gas" in the US (short for "gasoline"), which is a liquid. There's liquified petroleum gas (LPG), which is also a liquid. And there's synthetic natural gas.

EDIT: Bonus: my understanding is that in Germany, an unqualified "gas" tends to refer to natural gas, which Germany is presently importing in liquid form (liquified natural gas, or LNG).

[–] i_am_hiding@aussie.zone 5 points 2 weeks ago

What's wrong with LPG?

Petrol is a liquid. When liquid petrol evaporates is becomes a gas. When gaseous petrol is compressed in a container as pictured it becomes a liquid until it is released and allowed to expand again, hence liquefied (compressed) petroleum gas.

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[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 weeks ago

I have never filled my car's tank with "a gas," I fill it with gas, which is short for gasoline. That abbreviation being a homonym for gas, a chemical phase, is merely an unfortunate coincidence.

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[–] Ulvain@sh.itjust.works 23 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Pretty big miss to not include Quebec in the "essence" category, or at least to do a striped pattern

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 19 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I suddenly understand the name of the gas station “Esso”.

[–] Presently42@lemmy.ca 31 points 2 weeks ago

S O: Standard Oil

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[–] reallykindasorta@slrpnk.net 23 points 2 weeks ago

I like “essence”

[–] Klear@lemmy.world 18 points 2 weeks ago
[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I believe they call it guzzoline in Australia.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Calling it "essence" is fucking weird.

[–] Hudell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 2 weeks ago

Still better than calling it "Others". How does that even work?

[–] bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 weeks ago

mmmMMMmmm, Essense, yessss

[–] zod000@lemmy.ml 13 points 2 weeks ago

Give me a full tank of Others please!

[–] Grian@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Algerian here, the most common word used to talk about "gas" here is actually the french word essence, since darja(what people actually speak) is just a weird amalgamate of french, Arabic and Berber that really don't get along well.

I know this Map just took the official languages, so I don't wanna call it inacuratd, but just wanted to point this out.

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[–] Deceptichum@quokk.au 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Not gonna lie, that’s an odd choice of name from China.

[–] tal 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

https://old.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/1lf63hv/whats_gasoline_called_in_each_asian_countries/

It sounds like it's not entirely consistent across China and the translation is somewhat-debatable, but a translation for China might be "gas-oil", "stone-oil", or "steam-oil".

[–] Meron35@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

汽油 (gas, as in state of matter + oil) refers to petrol/gasoline, the kind you put in cars.

石油 (stone oil) is refers to oil, as in the natural resource (such as crude).

原油 (origin oil) refers specifically to crude oil.

柴油 (kindling oil) refers to diesel.

加油 (add oil) is used to mean refilling the car with petrol.

And finally, 机油 (motor oil) is engine oil.

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[–] quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 weeks ago

Spain has many languages, in Catalan is benzene and I think in Aragonese is the same.

[–] viking@infosec.pub 8 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

In China it's 汽油 which basically means "gas oil". It's a verbatim translation of gasoline.

[–] migriffin@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 weeks ago

while in Taiwan it's 石油, which basically means "rock/petr oil", verbatim translation of petrol

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[–] msage@programming.dev 7 points 2 weeks ago

In Czech Repulic, Nafta is diesel.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 6 points 2 weeks ago

Essence of "go."

[–] OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Why is Greenland grey? It's the same as Denmark

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[–] Jaybird@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Why would you call it gas? It's a liquid?

[–] Unlearned9545@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The first commercially available version was Gazoline named after somebody.

Also, it's the vapors that are combustable not the liquid.

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