Another Latinized form of asphalt, used in older scientific and technical texts to refer to bituminous material used for paving and sealing.
Latin nominative singular of the substantive form of 'asphaltos' (Greek). This represents how medieval and Renaissance scholars systematically Latinized Greek technical terms to fit Latin grammatical patterns in scientific writing.
Medieval scholars faced a challenge: Greek had described materials and concepts that Latin writers needed to discuss, so they borrowed the Greek words but gave them Latin endings. 'Asphaltus' is a window into how the Romance languages inherited vocabulary from Greek through this scholarly Latinization process.
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