Notes

terebinth

Terebinto [Pistacia terebinthus L.]

terebinth

The terebinth has a ‘male’ and a ‘female’ form. The ‘male’ is barren, which is why it is called ‘male’; the fruit of one of the ‘female’ forms is red from the first and as large as an unripe lentil; the other produces a green fruit which subsequently turns red, and, ripening at the same time as the grapes, becomes eventually black and is as large as a bean, but resinous and somewhat aromatic.

terebinth

XII. Syria et terebinthum habet. ex iis mascula est sine fructu, feminarum duo genera: alteri fructus rubet lentis magnitudine, alteri pallidus cum vite maturescit, non grandior faba, odore iucundior, tactu osus. resincirca Iden Troadis et in Macedonia brevis arbor haec atque fruticosa, in Damasco Syriae magna. materies ei admodum lenta ac fidelis ad vetustatem, nigri splendoris, flos racemosus olivae modo, sed rubens, folia densa. fert et folliculos emittentes quaedam animalia ceu culices lentoremque resinosum qui et ex cortice erumpit.

XII. Syria also has the turpentine-tree. Of this the male variety has no fruit, but the female has two kinds of fruit, one of them ruddy and the size of a lentil, while the other is pale, and ripens at the same time as the grape; it is no larger in size than a bean, has a rather agreeable scent, and is sticky to the touch. Round Mount Ida in the Troad and in Macedonia this is a low-growing shrub-like tree, but at Damascus in Syria it is big. Its wood is fairly flexible and remains sound to a great age; it is of a shiny black colour. The flower grows in clusters like the olive, but is crimson in colour, and the foliage is thick. It also bears follicles out of which come insects resembling gnats, and which produce a sticky resinous fluid which also bursts out from its bark.

Melze

Meleses estants si frequentes au territoire d’Embrum & autout de Morienne, ne donneront despense à recouurer. Elles ont leurs semences plus petites que Cyprés, tant en la pommette que au noyau, toutesfois chasque chartée sur le lieu, qui l’entreprendoit, ne cousteroit pas un sou. C’est sur celuy dont la Manne est cueillie, & la grosse Terebenthine & l’Agaric aussi, & dont l’arbre est autant frequent es montaignes des Grisons, nommez en Latin Theti, qu’il fut onc, & es mesmes endroicts dont Tibere Empereur en feit apporter à Rome pour refaire le pont Naumachiarius, qui auoit esté bruslé.

terebinthe

Pline en décrit plusieurs espèces : « Ex his mascula est sine fructu ; feminarum dup genera » (XIII, 12). En réalité, il n’y là qu’une espèce, et dioïque: Pistacia terebinthus L. (Térébinthacées). (Paul Delaunay)

terebinth

terebinth. Forms: theribynte, terebynt, therebinthe, terebynte, -bint, -binthe, teribinth, terebinth. [Old French therebint(e (13th century in Hatzfeld and Darmesteter, Dictionnaire général de la langue française), -binthe, -bin, terebinte (Godefroy Compl.), adaptation of Latin terebinthus (Pliny), adopted from Greek terebinqoj, earlier terbinqoj and terminqoj, probably a foreign word.]

A tree of moderate size, Pistacia Terebinthus, N.O. Anacardiaceæ, a native of Southern Europe, Northern Africa, and Western Asia, the source of Chian turpentine, and a common object of veneration; also called turpentine tree, and Algerine or Barbary mastic-tree.

Also terebinth tree.

The resin of this tree = turpentine. Obsolete

turpentine

turpentine. Forms: terebentine, -yne (see also terebinthine); terb-, turbentyne; terpentin, turpentyne, -tyn, terpentine, turpentine; turmyntyne, termenteyne. [In 14-15th century terebentyne, terbentyne, adopted from Old French tere-, terbentine, adaptation of Latin terbentina or terebinthina (resina): Already by 1400, Old French had tourbentine (in R. Estienne 1550, turbentine); so English turbentyn and turpentine. The 15-16th century variant termenteyne curiously approaches the earlier Greek terminqinh terebinthine resin, turpentine.]

A term applied originally (as in Greek and Latin) to the semifluid resin of the terebinth tree, Pistacia terebinthus (Chian or Cyprian turpentine); now chiefly to the various oleoresins which exude from coniferous trees, consisting of more or less viscid solutions of resin in a volatile oil.

Terebinth

Pistacia terebinthus, known commonly as terebinth and turpentine tree, is a species of Pistacia, native to the Mediterranean region from the western regions of Morocco, Portugal and the Canary Islands, to Greece and western Turkey. In the eastern shores of the Mediterranean sea — Syria, Lebanon and Israel — a similar species, Pistacia palaestina, fills the same ecological niche as this species and is also known as terebinth.

John Chadwick believes that the terebinth is the plant called ki-ta-no in some of the Linear B tablets. He cites the work of a Spanish scholar, J.L. Melena, who had found “an ancient lexicon which showed that kritanos was another name for the turpentine tree, and that the Mycenaean spelling could represent a variant form of this word.”

The word “terebinth” is used (at least in some translations) for a tree mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures (or Old Testament), where the Hebrew word “elah” (plural “elim”) is used. This probably refers to Pistacia palaestina which is common in the area.

Terebinth from Oricum is referred to in Virgil’s Aeneid, Book 10, line 136, where Ascanius in battle is compared to “ivory skilfully inlaid in […] Orician terebinth” (”inclusum […] Oricia terebintho […] ebur”).

Terebinth is referred to by Robin Lane Fox in Alexander the Great: “When a Persian king took the throne, he attended Pasargadae, site of King Cyrus’s tomb, and dressed in a rough leather uniform to eat a ritual meal of figs, sour milk and leaves of terebinth.”