Also sneeze-wood. SNEEZE v., probably after Cape Du. nieshout.] A South African timber tree, Ptæroxylon utile; also, the wood of this tree.
1834. Pringle, Afr. Sk., vi. 219. A saffron-coloured timber, called sneeze-wood, from the effect of its pungent scent when newly cut.
1854. Pappe, Silva Capensis (1862), 5. Ptæroxylon Utile.… From the fact of its producing violent sneezing when sawn or otherwise worked at, it has received the name of Sneeze-wood.
1880. Silver & Co.’s S. Africa (ed. 3), 130. Melkhout, Olive-wood, and Sneezewood.
b. attrib., as sneezewood spade, stump, tree, etc.
1877. J. A. Chalmers, Tiyo Soga, i. 7. The sneezewood spade gave place to the crooked plough-share. Ibid., 11. The branches of the sneezewood tree.
1880. Bessey, Botany, 535. Ptæroxylon utile, the Sneezewood Tree of the Cape of Good Hope, furnishes a hard and durable timber.
1887. Miss E. E. Money, Dutch Maiden (1888), 229. Nodding away on his sneeze-wood stump.
