lentisk (LEN-tisk) - n., an evergreen Mediterranean shrub cultivated for its resin, also known as mastic.
I'd learned to call the shrub lentisk and the resin mastic, but apparently the latter is the more common name for the plant. Possibly I received the rule from a Latinist, as the distinction between plant (lentīscus) and resin (mastiche) is made there. The latter is from Greek, root meaning being to chew -- among its many uses, it's also a gum -- but my trail for the former stops with Latin.
---L.
I'd learned to call the shrub lentisk and the resin mastic, but apparently the latter is the more common name for the plant. Possibly I received the rule from a Latinist, as the distinction between plant (lentīscus) and resin (mastiche) is made there. The latter is from Greek, root meaning being to chew -- among its many uses, it's also a gum -- but my trail for the former stops with Latin.
---L.