Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A bitter, aromatic gum resin extracted from a southwest Asian plant (Ferula gummosa syn. F. galbaniflua) in the parsley family, used in incense and in traditional medicine.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A gum resin obtained from species of Ferula, especially F. galbaniflua and F. rubricaulis, of the desert regions of Persia. It occurs in the form of translucent tears, and has a peculiar aromatic odor and a disagreeable alliaceous taste. It is used in medicine as a stimulating expectorant and as an ingredient in plasters.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
bitter ,aromatic resin orgum , extracted from plants of the genusFerula , that resemblesassafoetida and has been used inincense and inaromatherapy
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a bitter aromatic gum resin that resembles asafetida
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The cypress and the galbanum bring a subtle woody note.
Orange Blossoms Aleksandra Crapanzano 2011
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One eau de toilette from the line, Pucci's Sole 149, features the distinctive aroma of tomato leaves, galbanum, jasmine and other botanicals. $59 at www. sephora.com.
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I haven't even touched earth or galbanum yet, which I absolutely, positively must have, and could perhaps satisfy with a bottle of Jacomo Silences.
one scent ... or many? ScentScelf 2009
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That's what it was like to sniff Silences, from the sharp but already layered opening through the dark green first layer and on into the galbanum earth to the very smooth remnants of extreme dry down.
Archive 2009-01-01 ScentScelf 2009
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Brings together a couple of passions of mine, galbanum and dirt, on either end of a really fun deep dark dense evolution from one to the other.
Archive 2009-05-01 ScentScelf 2009
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That's what it was like to sniff Silences, from the sharp but already layered opening through the dark green first layer and on into the galbanum earth to the very smooth remnants of extreme dry down.
Coming Back to My Senses... ScentScelf 2009
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Maybe it was easy for me to love because I was expecting supreme strangeness, a galbanum slap, and then I got warm forest instead.
One viscous, one vibrant ScentScelf 2009
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It doesn't have the stand-up-straight chilly galbanum of No. 19 and its ilk.
One viscous, one vibrant ScentScelf 2009
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I like galbanum, green, etc. ...but I haven't given up.
One viscous, one vibrant ScentScelf 2009
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Brings together a couple of passions of mine, galbanum and dirt, on either end of a really fun deep dark dense evolution from one to the other.
Dirt and Mothering ScentScelf 2009
chained_bear commented on the word galbanum
usage on confectio Damocritis
October 16, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word galbanum
"Spices appear throughout the Old Testament, especially in the descriptions of ceremonies. One of the Lord's commands to Moses in the book of Exodus was to build an altar covered with gold to burn incense (Exodus 30). The altar itself should be anointed with holy oil made 'after the art of the perfumer' with myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia in an olive-oil base. The incense powder to be burned on the altar is also described: 'And the Lord said to Moses: Take unto thee spices, stacte (probably storax), and onycha (the shell of a Red Sea molusk that emits a strong scent when burned), galbanum of sweet savor (the resin of an Asiatic plant, ferula galbanitula), and the clearest frankincense' (Exodus 30:34). Exodus further instructs that these aromatics too are to be 'compounded by the work of the perfumer' and 'most holy shall this incense be unto you,' so holy that it is forbidden to use it for personal pleasure on pain of death or banishment."
Paul Freedman, Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination (New Haven and London: Yale UP, 2008), 78
November 28, 2017