Etymologically
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balm

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /bɑːm/[1]
  • US: /bɑm/, /bɔm/[1]

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
  • 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