Also 4–5 ligne aloes, 6–9 lignaloe, 9 (sense c) linaloa, -aloe. [ad. late L. lignum aloēs ‘wood of the aloe’ (aloēs genitive of aloē).] a. The bitter drug aloes; = ALOE 3. b. Aloes-wood; = ALOE 1. c. [= Sp. linaloe.] An aromatic wood obtained from a Mexican tree of the genus Bursera.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, IV. 1109 (1137). The woful teris … As bittre weren … as is ligne Aloes or galle.
1577. Frampton, Joyfull Newes, 84 b. Making a Pomander of it, mingled with Muske, Lignaloe, it doeth comfort the braine.
1611. Bible, Num. xxiv. 6. The trees of Lign-Aloes which the Lord hath planted.
1721. Bailey, Lign-Aloes, the Wood of Aloes, a Drug of great Price.
1859. Hooker, in Man. Sci. Enq., 423. Lign aloe.—The name of a remarkably aromatic wood sent to the Paris Exhibition of 1855 from the department of Vera Cruz in Mexico.
1867. Jean Ingelow, Story of Doom, I. 18. Where the dew distilled All night from leaves of old lign aloe trees.
1883. Ogilvie, Suppl., Linaloa, A Mexican wood [etc.].
