Olibanum
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A gum resin from trees of the genus Boswellia, formerly used as a medicine and now mainly as incense. countable, uncountable
"Aromatics were used, too, especially in necromancy, and an old recipe of that sort comprises Musk, Myrrh, Frankincense, Red Storax, Mastick, Olibanum, Saffron, Benzoin and Labdanum."
- 2 an aromatic gum resin obtained from various Arabian or East African trees; formerly valued for worship and for embalming and fumigation wordnet
Example
More examples"Aromatics were used, too, especially in necromancy, and an old recipe of that sort comprises Musk, Myrrh, Frankincense, Red Storax, Mastick, Olibanum, Saffron, Benzoin and Labdanum."
Etymology
Borrowed from Medieval Latin olibanum, from Latin oleum libani, the first word meaning oil and the second from Ancient Greek λίβανος (líbanos, “frankincense (Boswellia sacra)”), from a Semitic source, compare Proto-Semitic *laban- (“white”). Cognate with Biblical Hebrew לְבוֹנָה (l'voná, “frankincense”), Arabic لبان (lubān, “frankincense”). (Compare benzoin for a similar process of metanalysis.) Doublet of oliban.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.