Ladanum

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A sticky aromatic resin obtained from the leaves and stems of certain rockrose shrubs, once prized in perfumery and medicine
2. An aromatic gummy substance exuded by Mediterranean cistus plants, historically used in incense, perfume and herbal remedies
3. A fragrant resinous exudate harvested from rockrose bushes, long valued in ancient and medieval pharmacy as well as in fragrances

Etymology: Ladanum is a resin, and its name records a journey through several languages. The Greeks called the gum "lḗdanon," and the word was built on "lḗdon," the name of the rockrose shrub that produces it. The resin was collected from the plant, which grows around the Mediterranean, and the Greek word for the shrub's gum is the direct ancestor of the Latin "lādanum." The Greek words are not native to Greek. Scholars trace them to a Semitic language, and the strongest comparison is the Akkadian "ladinnu," a word from ancient Mesopotamia that also referred to this aromatic substance. So a resin prized across the ancient Near East and Mediterranean carried a name that moved from Semitic speakers to the Greeks, and then to the Romans. Through Latin the word reached the wider European languages, and English took it in its variant form, "labdanum," which is the more common spelling today. The older spelling "ladanum," which this word is, preserves the Latin shape more closely.

Synonyms: labdanum