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I was researching about some substances, in particular:

Some in Spanish: caucho, hule, goma.

Some in English: gum, rubber gum, natural gum.

I'm concerned that the natural gum wiki article doesn't have a Spanish translation. Do we have a word for that in Spanish?

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  • Resina maybe? – fedorqui 'SO stop harming' Sep 27 '16 at 23:29
  • @fedorqui resin is very generic. He is interested on the latex type resin used to make tyres. In Colombia we call that caucho. Hule is understood but not used. If it is not natural we call it "caucho sintético" – DGaleano Sep 28 '16 at 13:12
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goma

Goma is the correct translation of natural gum in this case. Caucho means rubber, and hule refers to some types of soft plastic.

Apparently all those names:

goma, caucho and hule. http://www.habasit.com/es/goma-natural.htm

Are correct but I would recommend you use goma natural because it's much more clear that it refers to its natural state. Since caucho, at least in Mexico, is used as a synonym for tire rubber and hule as some sort of soft plastic

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    It looks like goma is the translation of just gum, and not natural gum. Could you elaborate a bit further to make your point clearer? – Charlie♦ Sep 28 '16 at 8:05
  • In Colombia the tree that gives natural gum when its bark is cut is called "árbol de caucho" so the natural gum is called caucho around here. – DGaleano Sep 28 '16 at 13:05
  • On the Wikipedia at the the Catalan and Portuguese translation they use goma /goma natural. I would accept both as possible translation in Spanish given the similarities of the 3 languages. – AlexBcn Sep 28 '16 at 14:59
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In Colombia and several other places in south america we call that Caucho

A short search for "árbol de caucho" gives us lots of links about "rubber trees" (obviously natural rubber/gum)

Same search give us that in regions like Mexico they call it "Hule". In Colombia this word is understood but not used frequently.

We use goma to refer to the same material but in a very soft or even liquid state. When is solid (but elastic) we call it caucho.

The artificial version of if is called "caucho sintético"

According to several sites including this http://wikidiff.com/gum/rubber the difference is this

  • gum = any of various viscous or sticky substances that are exuded by certain plants
  • rubber = pliable material derived from the sap of the rubber tree; a hydrocarbon polymer of isoprene

So gum is the sap of the tree in liquid state and that is what we call "goma" while rubber is the already processed material and that is what we call "caucho" or "hule" depending on the region.

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I would translate it as "goma natural". However, when talking about natural gum in Spanish, I have usually seen it described by its source or common name, for example: agar-agar (seaweeds) or "goma arábica (Acacia trees), and believe it or not "chicle" (Chicle tree). Notice these are for human consumption and you can find it in recipe books.

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