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Webster 1913 Edition
Opopanax
O-pop′a-nax
,Noun.
[L., fr. Gr. [GREEK]; [GREEK] vegetable juice +
πάναξ
, πάνακες
, a kind of plant: cf. F. opopanax
.] The inspissated juice of an umbelliferous plant (the
Opoponax Chironum
), brought from Turkey and the East Indies in loose granules, or sometimes in larger masses, of a reddish yellow color, with specks of white. It has a strong smell and acrid taste, and was formerly used in medicine as an emmenagogue and antispasmodic. Dunglison.
Webster 1828 Edition
Opopanax
OPO'PANAX
,Noun.
A gum-resin of a tolerably firm texture, brought in loose granules or drops, sometimes in larger masses. This substance on the outside is of a brownish red color, with specks of white, and within of a dusky yellow or whitish color. It has a strong smell and an acrid taste. It is obtained from the roots of an umbelliferous plant of the genus Pastinaca or parsnep, and is brought from Turkey and the East Indies.
Definition 2024
opopanax
opopanax
English
Noun
opopanax (countable and uncountable, plural opopanaxes)
- (obsolete) A gum resin obtained from the root of Opopanax chironium, formerly used in medicine.
- A perfume made from the gum resin of various trees.
- 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 450:
- they were hit by a strong polyaromatic gust [...] which included alcohol fumes, tobacco and hemp-smoke, a spectrum of inexpensive scent in which opopanax and vervain figured prominently
- 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 450:
- The opopanax tree, Acacia farnesiana, an acacia of America.