Forms: pl. 1 aluwan, alewan, alwan, 2–6 aloen, 4–6 alowes, 6 allowes, 4– aloes; sing. 5– aloe. [OE. aluwan, pl. of aluwe, alue, ad. L. aloē, a. Gr. ἀλόη, properly the drug and plant described in senses 2–5; but used also in the Septuagint and N.T. to translate Heb. akhālīm, akhālōth (cf. Skr. aguru, Hind. aghil) the Agalloch, probably from the similarity of the words. In consequence of this confusion, the word came to be applied in the modern languages, both to the fragrant resin or aloes of the Bible, and the bitter drug or aloes proper. The former is indeed the earliest use in Eng., where also the word was orig. always plural.]
† 1. pl. The fragrant resin or wood of the AGALLOCH (q.v.), derived from species of two East Indian genera, Aloexylon and Aquilaria. See LIGN-ALOES.
c. 950. Sax. Leechd., II. 174. Alwan wiþ untrymnessum.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., John xix. 39. Brohte wyrt-ʓemang and alewan.
c. 1160. Hatton G., ibid. Wyrt-ʓemang and aloen.
1382. Wyclif, ibid. A medlynge of myrre and aloes.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. v. (1495), 606. Alowes is a tree wyth moste swete smelle.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. xliv. 8. All thy garmentes are like myrre, Aloes and Cassia.
1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Formul., T ij. Decoction of thure, mastice, aloen.
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. 229. He sendeth another small ship euery yeere to Cauchin China to lade there wood of Aloes.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, I. i. 93. Take … Aloes Cicatrina, purest Frankincense … of each half an Ounce.
1865. Harper’s Weekly, 1 April, 199/3. The Canticles record in one verse … frankincense, myrrh, and aloes—the last meaning the wood of the aloexylum agallochum.
2. A genus of plants (N.O. Liliaceæ, sect. Aloinæ) containing several species, succulent herbs, shrubs, or trees, with erect spikes of flowers, and bitter juice.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. vi. (1495), 606. Aloe is the frute of a certen herbe that hyght Aloe … The juys thereof is wronge and sod on the fyre and afterwarde dryed in the sonne.
1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 68. The bittrenesse of the aloe tre distroyeth the swittenesse of the hony.
1551. Turner, Herbal (1568), 17. The nature of the herbe Aloe is to hele woundes.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 353. We may call it in English Aloë, herbe Aloë, or Sea Aygreene.
1769. Sir J. Hill, Fam. Herb. (1812), 6. The socotrine aloe is a very beautiful plant, the leaves are like those of the pine-apple.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 274. Aloes are mostly found in the southern parts of Africa.
1877. Thomson, Voy. Challenger, I. ii. 113. Clumps of aloes with their rich crimson spikes.
3. (Usually pl.) A drug of nauseous odor, bitter taste, and purgative qualities, procured from the inspissated juice of plants of the genus Aloe.
1398. [See 2].
1477. Norton, Ord. Alch., in Ashm. 1652, v. 70. Odours misliking, as Aloes and Sulphure.
1543. Traheron, Vigo’s Chirurg. (1586), 430. Aloe is the liquor of an herbe, brought unto us out of India.
1618. Latham, 2nd Bk. Falc. (1633), 140. Aloes, the iuyce which is vsed in physicke is moderately hot … extreame bitter.
1756. Burke, Subl. & B., Wks. I. 100. All men are agreed to call … aloes bitter.
1875. Wood, Therap. (1879), 462. Aloes is a stomachic, stimulant cathartic.
4. fig. Bitter experiences, trials, etc.
1526. Skelton, Magnyf., 2383. Bytter alowes of herde adversyte.
1617. Hieron, Wks., II. 203. He purgeth and bringeth low by the bitter aloes of the law.
1630. Brathwait, Eng. Gent. (1641), 256. Hee attempers his actractivest pastimes with a little alloes.
† 5. Some mineral resembling the drug. Obs.
1601. Holland, Pliny (1634), II. 271. Aboue Ierusalem … there is a certain minerall Aloe to be found, growing in manner of a mettal within the ground.
6. Applied popularly to other plants having some supposed resemblance to the genus Aloe, chiefly the AGAVE or ‘American Aloe’ (famed for its rare flowering).
1682. Wheler, Journ. Greece, I. 27. Here I saw Aloes in flower.
1752. Miller, Gard. Dict. (ed. 6), H 2. A vulgar Error … relating to the large American Aloe; which is, that it never flowers till it is an hundred Years old.
1843. Prescott, Conq. Mexico (1854), 3. Plantations of the aloe or maguey (Agave americana).
1866. Moore, in Treas. Bot., 29. The American Aloe appears to have been first introduced to Europe in 1561.
7. Comb. aloes-wood (= ALOE 1); aloe-like.
1807. Martyn, Miller’s Gard. Dict., 3 B b. The aroma of Aloes wood is a disease.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 77. Aloes wood, a fragrant resinous substance of a dark colour, is the inside of the trunk of the Aquilaria ovata and A. Agallochum.
1866. Treas. Bot., Aloes-Wood, the wood of Aloexylon Agallochum.
1839. Bailey, Festus, xxx. (1848), 345. There are some hearts, aloe-like, flower once, and die [see 6].
