Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of several tropical American trees of the genus Guaiacum; a lignum vitae.
- noun The wood of a guaiacum.
- noun A greenish-brown resin obtained from this tree, used medicinally and in varnishes.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any of a number of species of
tree of the genus Guaiacum, native to the West Indies and parts of the Americas. - noun The
wood orresin of this tree.
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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He continues with advice on how to recognize and treat the disease with various substances and techniques such as sarsaparilla, guaiacum, various ointments, and fumigation.
Pestilence and Headcolds: Encountering Illness in Colonial Mexico 2008
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Chocolate was not the only American product to do so — tobacco, sarsaparilla, and guaiacum were just a few of the other new plants to accumulate fantastic claims of curing power to their names.
Pestilence and Headcolds: Encountering Illness in Colonial Mexico 2008
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Contains images as well as text written in Spanish and Náhuatl. gente de razon: "civilized" people. guaiacum: wood from a tree native to the West Indies, used as a medicine, especially for syphilis; sometimes called "palo santo." limpieza de sangre: "purity of blood"; the absence of Jewish or Muslim ancestors.
Pestilence and Headcolds: Encountering Illness in Colonial Mexico 2008
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This was guaiacum, sometimes called palo santo, a wood from a tree native to the West Indies.
Pestilence and Headcolds: Encountering Illness in Colonial Mexico 2008
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Scoltzii, make frequent and good use of guaiacum and China,
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= -- Tincture of guaiacum produces in the watery solution a reddish-white precipitate of the resin, but on addition of an aqueous solution of peroxide of hydrogen, or of an ethereal solution of the same substance (known as _ozonic ether_), a blue or bluish-green colour is developed.
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-- Take a teaspoonful of the tincture of gum guaiacum and one teaspoonful of vinegar; mix well and apply to the affected parts.
Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889 Barkham Burroughs
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Take of 95 percent alcohol 2 quarts, and add to it the following articles: oils of sarsafras and hemlock, spirits of turpentine, balsam of fir, chloriform, tincture of catechu and guaiacum, of each 1 oz., oil of origanum 2 oz., oil of wintergreen 1/2 oz., and gum of camphor 1/2 oz.
Young's Demonstrative Translation of Scientific Secrets Daniel Young
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The most active part of the tuber lies just beneath the skin, as may be shown by pouring some tincture of guaiacum over the cut surface of a Potato, when a ring of blue forms close to the skin, and is darkest there while extending over the whole cut surface.
Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure William Thomas Fernie
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It is not absolutely indicative of the presence of blood, for tincture of guaiacum is coloured blue by milk, saliva, and pus.
chained_bear commented on the word guaiacum
"...no power on earth could prevent them from hurrying to bawdy-houses as soon as they were ashore. These cases he treated with calomel and guaiacum..."
--O'Brian, The Wine-Dark Sea, 75
March 14, 2008