Also 7 callamback, calembuc, 7–8 calamba, 8 -bo, 8–9 -beg, 9 -bao. [Kalambak is given by Crawfurd and Forbes-Watson as Malay and Javanese: Col. Yule thinks ‘it perh. came with the article from Champa’ in Anam. The other forms are corruptions or adaptations in Portuguese and other European langs.: French has calambac, -bart, -bouc, -bou, bour.]
An eastern name of Aloes-wood or Eagle-wood, produced by Aquilaria Agallocha, Roxb. (See AGALLOCH.)
(So all recent authorities on Indian Botany. Aloexylum, regarded as the source by earlier authors, is now given up.)
[1552. Barros’ Decades d’Asia, I. ix. 1. (transl. Yule) Campa, in the mountains of which grows the genuine aloes-wood, which the Moors of those parts call Calambuc.]
1594. Merry Knack, in Hazl., Dodsley, VI. 571. Then will I have … Calambac and Cassia.
1667. H. Oldenburg, in Phil. Trans., II. 417. Where the best Calamba-wood, or Palo d’Aquila, grows.
1690. Songs Costume (1849), 189. Calembuc combs in pulvil case.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Aloes, The calambo … is brought in small bits of a very fragrant scent.
1871. E. Balfour, Cycl. India, Calambac, Calambao, Calambeg, also called Aloes wood is the Agallochum of the ancients and the Agilla or Eaglewood of the moderns. It is produced in Siam and Silhet by Aquilaria Agallocha.
1885. G. Watt, Dict. Econ. Prod. India, s.v., In the interior of old trees we found irregular masses of harder and darker coloured wood, which constitutes the famous Eaglewood … called … also Calambac, Agallochum, Aloe or Aloes Wood.
