aloe
(ˈæləʊ)
Forms: pl. 1 aluwan, alewan, alwan, 2–6 aloen, 4–6 alowes, 6 allowes, 4– aloes; sing. 5– aloe.
[OE. aluwan, pl. of aluwe, alue, ad. L. aloē, a. Gr. ἀλόη, properly the drug and plant described in senses 2–5; but used also in the Septuagint and N.T. to translate Heb. akhālīm, akhālōth (cf. Skr. aguru, Hind. aghil) the Agalloch, probably from the similarity of the words. In consequence of this confusion, the word came to be applied in the modern languages, both to the fragrant resin or aloes of the Bible, and the bitter drug or aloes proper. The former is indeed the earliest use in Eng., where also the word was orig. always plural.]
† 1. pl. The fragrant resin or wood of the agalloch (q.v.), derived from species of two East Indian genera, Aloexylon and Aquilaria. See lign-aloes.
| c 950 Sax. Leechd. II. 174 Alwan wiþ untrymnessum. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. John xix. 39 Brohte wyrt-ᵹemang and alewan. c 1160 Hatton G. ibid., Wyrt-ᵹemang and aloen. 1382 Wyclif ibid., A medlynge of myrre and aloes. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. v. (1495) 606 Alowes is a tree wyth moste swete smelle. 1535 Coverdale Ps. xliv. 8 All thy garmentes are like myrre, Aloes and Cassia. 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Formul. T ij, Decoction of thure, mastice, aloen. 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. 229 He sendeth another small ship euery yeere to Cauchin China to lade there wood of Aloes. 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece i. i. 93 Take..Aloes Cicatrina, purest Frankincense..of each half an Ounce. 1865 Public Opin. 7 Jan. 19 The Canticles record in one verse..frankincense, myrrh, and aloes—the last meaning the wood of the aloexylum agallochum. |
2. A genus of plants (family Liliaceæ, sect. Aloinæ) containing several species, succulent herbs, shrubs, or trees, with erect spikes of flowers, and bitter juice.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. vi. (1495) 606 Aloe is the frute of a certen herbe that hyght Aloe..The juys thereof is wronge and sod on the fyre and afterwarde dryed in the sonne. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 68 The bittrenesse of the aloe tre distroyeth the swittenesse of the hony. 1551 Turner Herb. (1568) 17 The nature of the herbe Aloe is to hele woundes. 1578 Lyte Dodoens 353 We may call it in English Aloë, herbe Aloë, or Sea Aygreene. 1769 Sir J. Hill Fam. Herb. (1812) 6 The socotrine aloe is a very beautiful plant, the leaves are like those of the pine-apple. 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 274 Aloes are mostly found in the southern parts of Africa. 1877 Thomson Voy. Challenger I. ii. 113 Clumps of aloes with their rich crimson spikes. |
3. (Usually pl.) A drug of nauseous odour, bitter taste, and purgative qualities, procured from the inspissated juice of plants of the genus Aloe.
| 1398 [See 2]. 1477 Norton Ord. Alch. in Ashm. 1652 v. 70 Odours misliking, as Aloes and Sulphure. 1543 Traheron Vigo's Chirurg. (1586) 430 Aloe is the liquor of an herbe, brought unto us out of India. 1618 Latham 2nd Bk. Falc. (1633) 140 Aloes, the iuyce which is vsed in physicke is moderately hot..extreame bitter. 1756 Burke Subl. & B. Wks. I. 100 All men are agreed to call..aloes bitter. 1875 Wood Therap. (1879) 462 Aloes is a stomachic, stimulant cathartic. |
4. fig. Bitter experiences, trials, etc.
| 1526 Skelton Magnyf. 2383 Bytter alowes of herde adversyte. 1617 Hieron Wks. II. 203 He purgeth and bringeth low by the bitter aloes of the law. 1630 R. Brathwait Eng. Gent. (1641) 256 Hee attempers his actractivest pastimes with a little alloes. |
† 5. Some mineral resembling the drug. Obs.
| 1601 Holland Pliny (1634) II. 271 Aboue Ierusalem..there is a certain minerall Aloe to be found, growing in manner of a mettal within the ground. |
6. Applied popularly to other plants having some supposed resemblance to the genus Aloe, chiefly the Agave or ‘American Aloe’ (famed for its rare flowering).
| 1682 Wheler Journ. Greece i. 27 Here I saw Aloes in flower. 1752 Miller Gard. Dict. (ed. 6) H 2 A vulgar Error..relating to the large American Aloe; which is, that it never flowers till it is an hundred Years old. 1843 Prescott Conq. Mexico (1854) 3 Plantations of the aloe or maguey (Agave americana). 1866 Moore in Treas. Bot. 29 The American Aloe appears to have been first introduced to Europe in 1561. |
7. Comb. aloes-wood (= aloe 1); aloe-like.
| 1807 Martyn Miller's Gard. Dict. 3 B b, The aroma of Aloes wood is a disease. 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 77 Aloes wood, a fragrant resinous substance of a dark colour, is the inside of the trunk of the Aquilaria ovata and A. Agallochum. 1866 Treas. Bot., Aloes-Wood, the wood of Aloexylon Agallochum. 1839 Bailey Festus xxx. (1848) 345 There are some hearts, aloe-like, flower once, and die [see 6]. |