‖ ˈbalsamum Obs.
[a. L. balsamum, a. Gr. βάλσαµον the balsam-tree, and its resin (prob. f. Semitic: cf. Heb. besem, bāsām, ‘spice’; though the LXX never render this word by βάλσαµον, nor the Vulg. by balsamum, words which do not occur in these versions. Occas. used in OE. in the general sense of balm, and in regular use from c 1400 to 17th c., in the specific senses, in which balsam is now substituted.]
1. An aromatic resinous vegetable juice; = balm n. 1, balsam n. 1.
| c 885 K. ælfred Bæda iii. viii. (Bosw.), Héddern ða balsamum on wǽre. 1590 Marlowe 2nd Pt. Tamburl. iv. ii, An ointment..distilled from the purest balsamum. 1636 Featly Clavis Myst. viii. 100 To discerne a sented poyson from Balsamum. |
2. = balm n. 2–5.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy xxi. 8776 A prise oyntment of bavme and of balsamom. 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. iv. i. 89, I haue bought The Oyle, the Balsamum, and Aqua-vitæ. a 1653 G. Daniel Idyll iii. 113 To plaister o're These Vlcers with a Balsamum. |
| fig. 1601 Chester Love's Mart. lxxxviii, Heart-curing Balsamum. a 1631 Donne Serm. xli. 410 The Balsamum of this kisse. |
3. Alch. = balsam n. 4.
| a 1631 Donne Serm. xxxii. 313 Everything hath in it..a naturall Balsamum; which if any wound or hurt which that Creature hath received be kept clean from Extrinsique putrefaction, will heal of itself. 1650 French Chym. Dict., Balsamum is a substance of bodies preserving things from putrefaction. |
4. A tree yielding balm or balsam;
= balsam n. 8.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. xviii. (1495) 614 The bowes of Balsamum ben softly kytte wyth a knyfe of boon. |
5. attrib., as in
balsamum-tree (
= prec.).
| 1603 Sir C. Heydon Jud. Astrol. xxii. 485 The Viper delighteth in the shadow of the Balsamum tree. |