Also 4–5 stacten, 7 stact, 8 stackten. [L. stactē, a. Gr. στακτή fem. of στακτός distilling in drops, f. σταγ-, στάζειν to drop. The form stacten represents the accus., treated in med.L. as indeclinable. (So G. stacten.)]
a. A fragrant spice referred to by ancient writers; properly, the finest kind of myrrh, the exudation of the living tree (Pliny, N. H., XII. xxxv.), but the name was also applied to a mixture of storax with fat. In the Bible used (after LXX and Vulgate) as the translation of Heb. nāṭāph, one of the ingredients of the incense prescribed for the Tabernacle worship, variously conjectured to be opobalsamum, myrrh, storax or tragacanth. † b. Pharmacy. Formerly applied arbitrarily to LIQUIDAMBAR and perh. other preparations (the meaning in quot. 1715 is obscure).
1382. Wyclif, Exod. xxx. 34. Tak to the swete smellynge thinges, stacten [1535 Coverdale stacte] and onycha, galbantum of good smel [etc.].
1483. Caxton, Golden Leg., Joseph, 51 b. And gyue ye & presente to that man yeftes, a lytyl reysyns & hony, Storax, scacten [read stacten], therebinthe & dates.
1600. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., V. iv. Stacte, opobalsamum, amomum, storax.
1631. Widdowes, Nat. Philos., 33. The distilled liquor of fresh Myrrh was once called Stact, but now it is named Storax.
1715. Lady G. Baillie, Househ. Bk. (1911), 98. For stacktens drops 2s.
1844. Hoblyn, Dict. Terms Med. (ed. 2), Stacte,… Also, a more liquid kind of amber than is generally met with in the shops.
1887. Bentley, Man. Bot., 506. The Stacte or Liquid Myrrh of the ancients.
