frankincense

From Old French franc encens (“noble incense”).

frankincense (countable and uncountable, plural frankincenses)

1. A type of incense obtained from the Boswellia thurifera tree.
   • 1916, James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:

     The glories of Mary held his soul captive : spikenard and myrrh and frankincense, symbolising the preciousness of God's gifts to her soul, rich garments, symbolising her royal lineage, her emblems, the lateflowering plant and lateblossoming tree, symbolising the agelong gradual growth of her cultus among men.

• olibanum