Papermaking

The nineteenth entry is o processo ao sulfato, and English will turn it into « the sulphate process » without blinking. That name is the rarer one. The mill, the trade press and the stationery cupboard all say « kraft » instead: kraft pulp, kraft paper, the kraft process, the brown kraft envelope that nobody takes for a technical term. The word is German, Kraft, strength, and it was fastened to the method because the fibre that comes out is tougher than the fibre that goes in — the cooking liquor takes the lenhina away without cutting the cellulose to pieces. English borrowed the whole word untranslated, which is why it looks like a trade mark and behaves like an adjective: « a kraft sack », « kraft-lined board », « unbleached kraft ». Portuguese borrowed it too, but only for the paper, o papel kraft, and kept o processo ao sulfato for the method itself. So the two languages cut one idea in different places. English names the process after what it produces, and Portuguese after the chemical that does the work.