galbanum

Forms

galbanum n (genitive galbanī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek χαλβάνη (khalbánē, “galbanum”).^[2][1][3] The OLD derives the Greek word, probably, from Biblical Hebrew חֶלְבְּנָה (ḥelbenāh);^[2] Beekes calls it a Semitic loanword from Hebrew.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Celsus lists it among the remedies that ripen and draw out pus, beside nard and balsam.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It was the gum resin of plants of the genus Ferula, imported from the East.^[2][6] Pliny the Elder says that Syria produced it from a ferula on Mount Amanus and that burning it drove away gnats,^[2] and Suetonius mentions torches smeared with it.^[2] The Vulgate also has a masculine galbanus.^[6][7]

Church Latin kept it as the name of an oriental gum,^[8] and medieval writers in Britain name it beside storax and balsam, following a passage of Sirach.^[7]

Timeline

• 14–37 AD – Celsus lists it among remedies for pus.^[2][5]
• 1st century AD – Calpurnius Siculus speaks of burning it.^[2][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes where it comes from and its use against gnats.^[2][5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius mentions torches smeared with it.^[2][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate has the masculine form galbanus.^[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. galbanum, a gum resin obtained from several species of Ferula.^[2][6][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson