[L. lignum wood.]

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  ǁ 1.  Bot. The wood of exogenous plants, comprising both alburnum and duramen.

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1826.  Good, Bk. Nat., I. 190. The whole of the liber of one year … becoming the alburnum of the next, and the alburnum becoming the lignum.

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1866.  in Treas. Bot.

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  ǁ 2.  Occurring, with qualification, in the names of various trees and woods: lignum aloes († occas. aloe) = LIGNALOES; † lignum aquilæ, aloes-wood; † lignum rhodium, candle-wood, Amyris balsamifera; † lignum sanctum, a name for LIGNUM VITÆ.

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c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), xxxiii. 150. Þe tree þat es called lignum aloes.

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1525.  trans. Jerome of Brunswick’s Surg., T iij a/2. Take lignum aloes .ij. ounces.

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1529.  Doctors’ Commons Wills (Camden), 14. My beades of lignum alweys dressed with goulde.

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1553.  Lignum Sanctum [see GUAIACUM 1].

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1555.  Eden, Decades, 239. Lignum aloe, blacke, heauy and fine.

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1558, 1604.  [see GUAIAC].

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1600.  J. Pory, trans. Leo’s Africa, Introd. 41. Here groweth the right Lignum Aquilæ, which is of so excellent vertue in phisick.

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1669.  Dryden, Tyrannic Love, IV. i. Wks. 1883, III. 421. The chalks and chips of lignum aloes.

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1693.  Lignum Rhodium [see LIGHTWOOD2].

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1741.  Compl. Fam. Piece, I. i. 56. The Powder of Lignum Aloes.

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  3.  Short for LIGNUM VITÆ.

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1899.  Sheffield manufacturer’s list, Braces, Beech and Lignum Head.

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