olibanum
A gum resin from trees of the genus Boswellia, formerly used as a medicine and now…A gum resin from trees of the genus Boswellia, formerly used as a medicine and now mainly as incense.
Meaning
1 senses(countable, uncountable)A gum resin from trees of the genus Boswellia, formerly used as a medicine and now mainly as incense.
an aromatic gum resin obtained from various Arabian or East African trees; formerly valued for worship and for embalming and fumigation
Origin
Borrowed from Medieval Latin olibanum, from Latin oleum libani, the first word meaning oilBorrowed from Medieval Latin olibanum, from Latin oleum libani, the first word meaning oil and the second from Ancient Greek λίβανος (líbanos, “frankincense (Boswellia sacra)”), from a Semitic source, compare Proto-Semitic *laban- (“white”). Cognate with Biblical Hebrew לְבוֹנָה (l'voná, “frankincense”), Arabic لبان (lubān, “frankincense”). (Compare benzoin for a similar process of metanalysis.) Doublet of oliban.
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Forms
plural: olibanumsSynonyms
3 synonyms- an aromatic gum resin obtained from various Arabian or East African trees; formerly valued for worship and for embalming and fumigation:frankincensegum olibanumthus
Word family
1 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.