guaiacum

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun medicinal resin from the lignum vitae tree
noun hard greenish-brown wood of the lignum vitae tree and other trees of the genus Guaiacum
noun small genus of evergreen resinous trees or shrubs of warm and tropical America

From New Latin, from Spanish guayacán.

Here grow the jalap and the guaiacum, the sweet-scented sassafras and the sanitary copaiba. — The Rifle Rangers, Mayne Reid
Lignum vitæ, or guaiac wood (Guaiacum officinale), grows profusely in the West Indies and along the Spanish Main. — Commercial Geography: A Book for High Schools, Commercial Courses, and Business Colleges, Jacques W. (Jacques Wardlaw) Redway
If the nations whence we fetch our guaiacum, sarsaparilla, and China wood, have physicians, how great a value must we imagine, by the same recommendation of strangeness, rarity, and dear purchase, do they set upon our cabbage and parsley? for who would dare to contemn things so far fetched, and sought out at the hazard of so long and dangerous a voyage? — Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete, Michel de Montaigne

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