balm

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English basme, also bame and baume,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} borrowed from Old French basme, later baume,^{[2][3][7][8][6]} from Latin balsamum (“balsam”),^[2][3][8][9] from Ancient Greek βάλσαμον (bálsamon, “balsam, aromatic resin”).^[3][9][5][7] The Greek word is probably of Semitic origin: Barnhart, Merriam-Webster and Skeat compare a Hebrew word for spice or balsam, and Ayto calls it a possible ultimate source.^{[4][7][10][9]} The Anglo-Norman word, meaning balm, a balm tree or water mint, is recorded from 1121–35.^[11] The Old French forms bausme and baume were literary refashionings influenced by Latin, and in English the l of the Latin word was restored to the spelling in the 15th and 16th centuries,^[2][9][3][4] while the pronunciation kept the older form without it.^[9] The word is thus a doublet of balsam, borrowed directly from Latin in the 15th century,^[9][1] and is related to embalm.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

An aromatic resin from certain trees, prized for its fragrance and healing power: about 1200, as basme, in the Ancrene Riwle,^[3][4] and about 1220 in Hali Meidenhad in the OED.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the noun to the 13th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From the resin the word passed to the trees that yield it (late 14th century),^[2][3] to aromatic preparations used for embalming the dead, for anointing, or for soothing pain and healing wounds,^[2][3] and also, from the mid-15th century, to fragrant garden herbs such as lemon balm.^[3][2] The figurative sense, a healing or soothing influence, appears in 1540, in the Great Bible.^[2][3] The biblical balm of Gilead, valued for its medicinal power, comes from Coverdale's Bible (1535);^[2][3] Etymonline notes that the Hebrew word in that passage was rendered “resin” in the Septuagint and the Vulgate.^[3] The verb, to embalm, is recorded from about 1300, and to soothe or relieve pain from before 1400; both are now archaic.^[2][7] Johnson (1755) defined the noun first as the very fragrant sap of a shrub, then as any valuable or fragrant ointment.^[12] In Jamaica, from 1897, a balm is a faith-healing ceremony with drumming and dancing, or a herbal bath given in it; the OED takes this as a specific use of the same word, perhaps influenced by a Twi name for a healing ritual.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – basme, an aromatic resin, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[3][4] The OED's first record is from about 1220.^[2]
• c. 1300 – verb, to embalm.^[2]
• late 14th century – a tree that yields balm.^[2][3]
• 1393 – a fragrant ointment for soothing pain or healing wounds, in Gower.^[2]
• c. 1440 – a fragrant garden herb.^[2][3]
• 1447 – a fragrant oil for anointing.^[2]
• 1483 – a pleasant fragrance.^[2]
• 1535 – balm of Gilead, in Coverdale's Bible.^[2][3]
• 1540 – a healing or soothing influence, in the Great Bible.^[2][3]
• 1897 – in Jamaica, a faith-healing ceremony.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fragrant ointment or preparation used to heal or soothe the skin: a lip balm.^[13][7][2]
2. Something that comforts or soothes: The quiet garden was a balm after the noisy city.^[13][2]
3. Any of various fragrant resins obtained from certain trees, especially of the genus Commiphora.^[13][7][2]
4. A tree or plant that yields such a resin, such as the balm of Gilead.^[13][2]
5. Lemon balm, a fragrant herb of the mint family, or another herb like it.^[13][2]

Verb

1. (archaic) To soothe or ease pain or sorrow.^[2][7]
2. (archaic) To embalm or anoint with balm.^[2][7]

Word family

• balmlike
• balmy
• embalm
• balm of Gilead

Related words

• balsam

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e f Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins