gum

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“
This gum is a species of pitch, and is one of the most necessary materials in the making of a bark canoe.

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Definitions (160)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (13)

  1. noun Any of various viscous substances that are exuded by certain plants and trees and dry into water-soluble, noncrystalline, brittle solids.
  2. noun A similar plant exudate, such as a resin.
  3. noun Any of various adhesives made from such exudates or other sticky substance.
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Words tagged gum

mastic · gamboge · amapa · guttapercha · xylan · xanthan · talha · styrax · storax · silphium · scammony

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This word has been looked up 131 times.

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Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English gomme, from Old French, from Late Latin gumma, variant of Latin gummi, cummi, from Greek kommi, perhaps from Egyptian ḳmj-t.
  2. Middle English gome, from Old English gōma, palate, jaw.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English gumme, gomme, commonly in plural gummes, gommes; another form, with shortened vowel, of what still exists as dial. goom (cf. modern English blood, food, etc., in which the same orig. vowel is similarly shortened, and rudder, stud, in which it is shortened and changed in spelling), from Middle English goome, gome (with long vowel), commonly in plural goomes, gomes, the gums, from Anglo-Saxon gōma, the palate, plural the fauces, the jaws, = Middle Low German Low German gume = Middle Dutch gumme = Old High German guomo, Middle High German guome, gume (with another form, Old High German goumo, Middle High German goume, German gaumen), the palate, = Icelandic gōmr = Swedish Norwegian gom, the palate, = Danish gumme, dial, gom, gum (cf. gane, palate); Lithuanian gomyris, the palate. Prob. from the same ult. root as Anglo-Saxon gānian, English yawn, and (Greek) chasm, chaos, etc., q. v., the orig. sense, then, being ‘the open jaw.’
  2. from gum, n.
  3. Earlymod. English also gumb, gumme, goome; from Middle English gumme, gomme, from Old French gomme, French gomme = Provencal Spanish goma = Portuguese Italian gomma = Dutch gom = G. Danish Swedish gummi, from Latin gummi, also gummis, cummi, cummis, commi (Middle Latin also gumma), from Greek κόμμι, gum, a word of unknown foreign origin.
 

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