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myrrh

A gum resin, usually of a yellowish brown or amber colour, of an aromatic odour, and a bitter, slightly pungent taste. It is valued for its odour and for its medicinal properties. It exuds from the bark of a shrub of Abyssinia and arabia, the Balsamodendron Myrrha. The myrrh of the bible is supposed to have been partly the gum above named, and partly the exudation of species of Cistus, or rockrose. False myrrh. See the note under Bdellium.

Origin: OE. Mirre, OF. Mirre, F. Myrrhe, L. Myrrha, murra, Gr.; cf. Ar. Murr bitter, also myrrh, Heb. Mar bitter.