gamboge

Dec. 29th, 2015 08:12 am
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gamboge (gam-BOHJ, gam-BOOZH) - n., any of several southeast Asian evergreen trees of the genus Garcinia; a gum resin from these trees, especially G. hanburyi or G. morella, used as a yellow pigment and as a purgative; a deep saffron-yellow or mustard-yellow color.


The color of the robes of Buddhist monks, which traditionally are dyed using gamboge. First recorded in English in 1634, from New Latin gambogium, alteration of cambugium, from or akin to Portuguese Camboja, Cambodia -- which makes it a cognate of kabocha, which is also from Portuguese Camboja only tossed through Japanese instead of Latin.

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