Obs. [a. L. balsamum, a. Gr. βάλσαμον the balsam-tree, and its resin (prob. f. Semitic: cf. Heb. besem, bāsām, ‘spice’; though the LXX never Tender this word by βάλσαμον, nor the Vulg. by balsamum, words which do not occur in these versions. Occas. used in OE. in the general sense of BALM, and in regular use from c. 1400 to 17th c., in the specific senses, in which BALSAM is now substituted.]
1. An aromatic resinous vegetable juice; = BALM sb. 1, BALSAM sb. 1.
c. 885. K. Ælfred, Bæda, III. viii. (Bosw.). Héddern ða balsamum on wǽre.
1590. Marlowe, 2nd Pt. Tamburl., IV. ii. An ointment … distilled from the purest balsamum.
1636. Featly, Clavis Myst., viii. 100. To discerne a sented poyson from Balsamum.
2. = BALM sb. 2–5.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, XXI. 8776. A prise oyntment of bavme and of balsamom.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., IV. i. 89. I haue bought The Oyle, the Balsamum, and Aqua-vitæ.
a. 1653. G. Daniel, Idyll, iii. 113. To plaister o’re These Vlcers with a Balsamum.
fig. 1601. Chester, Love’s Mart., lxxxviii. Heart-curing Balsamum.
a. 1631. Donne, Serm., xli. 410. The Balsamum of this kisse.
3. Alch. = BALSAM sb. 4.
a. 1631. Donne, Serm., xxxii. 313. Everything hath in it … a naturall Balsamum; which if any wound or hurt which that Creature hath received be kept clean from Extrinsique putrefaction, will heal of itself.
1650. French, Chym. Dict., Balsamum is a substance of bodies preserving things from putrefaction.
4. A tree yielding balm or balsam; = BALSAM sb. 8.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. xviii. (1495), 614. The bowes of Balsamum ben softly kytte wyth a knyfe of boon.
5. attrib., as in balsamum-tree (= prec.).
1603. Sir C. Heydon, Jud. Astrol., xxii. 485. The Viper delighteth in the shadow of the Balsamum tree.
