bitumen

Etymology

From Latin bitūmen.

noun

1. A sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum, burning with a bright flame. It occurs as an abundant natural product in many places, as on the shores of the Dead and Caspian Seas. It is used in cements, in the construction of pavements, etc.; Mineral pitch.
   You need to excavate and remove the topsoil, line the subsoil with a geotextile, then lay and compact hardcore. Follow this with a layer of compacted "hoggin" – compacted clay, gravel and sand. This is then sprayed with hot bitumen, and has a layer of pea shingle rolled into it. 24 August 2014, Jeff Howell, “Home improvements: gravel paths and cutting heating bills [print version: Cold comfort in technology, 23 August 2014, p. P5]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Property)
2. (by extension) Any one of the natural hydrocarbons, including the hard, solid, brittle varieties called asphalt, the semisolid maltha and mineral tars, the oily petrolea, and even the light, volatile naphthas.
3. (Australia, colloquial) Roads sealed with bitumen, as opposed to dirt roads.
4. (Canada) Canadian deposits of extremely heavy crude oil.

verb

1. To cover or fill with bitumen.
   another star reflected itself in the glassy black of the bitumened road 1926, Rudyard Kipling, “The Prophet and the Country”, in Debits and Credits, →OCLC, page 155
   The Litlata community have now built a mandi set in a pleasant garden, and to ensure the cleanliness of their yardna have bricked and bitumened the pool into which the water flows 1937, Lady Ethel Stefana Drower, Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran, Brill Archive, →LCCN, page 122
   Work is already under way to complete the bitumening of Western Australia's last unsurfaced stretch of Highway One, between Fitzroy Crossing and Hall's Creek. 1984, Dennis Hancock, Wheels of Progress: History of the Road Transport Industry in Western Australia, 1829-1983, Access Press, page 145
   The development of water reticulation occurred in parallel with street work — forming, kerbing, channelling and bitumening. 2013, Janice Cooper, Crossing the Divide: A History of Alpha and Jericho Districts, Boolarong Press, page 176