gamboge

The fruit of the gamboge (Garcinia xanthochymus; sense 1)

From Late Latin gambaugium, gambogium (“resin from trees used to make yellow dye”), from Late Latin gambogia (“Cambodia”). The Latin word was first attested in English as a colour in 1634.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɡæmˈbuːʒ/, /-ˈbəʊʒ/

• Audio (RP)

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɡæmˈbuʒ/, /-ˈboʊʒ/
• Hyphenation: gam‧boge

gamboge (countable and uncountable, plural gamboges)

1. One of several species of trees of the genus Garcinia found in South and Southeastern Asia, especially Garcinia xanthochymus.

   Synonym: cambogia

   • 1877, “Clusia′ceæ, or Guttif′eræ”, in John M[erry] Ross, editor, The Globe Encyclopædia of Universal Information, volume II, Boston, Mass.: Estes & Lauriat, […], OCLC 68781203, page 178, column 2:

     Clusia′ceæ, or Guttif′eræ, a natural order of trees or shrubs belonging to the Dicotyledons (division Thalamifloræ), natives of the humid tropics of S. America. […] Most of the plants have acrid properties, and yield a yellow resin. Among the chief and common plants of the order are Gambooge (q.v.), Mangosteen fruit (Garcinia Mangostana), […]

2. The resin of the gamboge tree; a preparation of the resin used as a pigment or for medicinal purposes. [from early 18th c.]
   • 1735, [John Barrow], “GREENS”, in Dictionarium Polygraphicum: Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested. [...], volume I, London: Printed for C[harles] Hitch and C[harles] Davis […], and S[amuel] Austen […], OCLC 987025732:

     Gamboge is one of the firſt yellows, which may be made to produce five or six ſorts of Green with verdegreaſe, according as the gambooge is in the greater or leſſer proportion; if it abounds, it will make a tolerable oak green, and being mixt with a greater quantity of verdegreaſe, it will make a fine graſs Green.

   • 1790, “[Appendix to the Second Volume of the Monthly Review Enlarged.] Art. X. Commentationes Societatis Regiæ Gottingensis. i.e. Memoirs of the Royal Society of Gottingen for the Years 1787 and 1788. 4to. 400 pages. Gottingen. 1789. [book review]”, in The Monthly Review; or, Literary Journal, Enlarged, volume XII, London: Printed for R[alph] Griffiths; and sold by T[homas] Becket, […], OCLC 901376714, page 553:

     Concerning the Tree which yields the Gamboge, By Profeſſor J[ames] A. Murray. […] The tree which yields the true gamboge is, by the natives on the coaſt of Coromandel, called Gokathu, and Bokathu; by Dr. König, it is name Guttæfera vera, and Arbor polygama fructu ceraſiformi eduli. […] This tree grows in Siam and Ceylon: in the months of June and July, the natives break off ſome of the leaves and young ſhoots, and a yellow juice drops from the wound, of the conſiſtence of cream, which is collected in cocoa-nut ſhells, and afterwards dried by the ſun.

   • 1825 September 10, “On the Imitation of Foreign Cabinet Woods”, in American Mechanics’ Magazine, Museum, Register, Journal and Gazette, volume II, number 32, New York, N.Y.: Published by C. S. Williams, […], Hutchinson & Bailey, printers, published 1826, OCLC 1015573998, page 99, column 2:

     Chestnut wood, dyed with saffron, or old chestnut, dyed with gambooge, imitates dark mahogany.

   • 1854, Jonathan Pereira, “315. Garciniæ Species Incerta, L.—The Gamboge Plant.”, in The Elements of Materia Medica and Therapeutics. […], volume II, 3rd American edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: Blanchard and Lea, OCLC 757232504, pages 969–970:

     Taken in small doses, gamboge promotes the secretions of the alimentary canal and of the kidneys, and causes more frequent and liquid stools than natural. […] Gamboge belongs to the active hydragogues and drastic purgatives. […] It is exceedingly apt to irritate the stomach, and to occasion nausea and vomiting. This arises from its ready solubility in the gastric juices. As this action on the stomach is exceedingly objectionable, we sometimes endeavour to lessen it by conjoining aloes, or some other substance which diminishes the solubility of gamboge in aqueous fluids, and by giving the medicine in the form of a pill.

   • 1861, M. C. Cooke, “Dye-stuffs of India and China”, in Peter Lund Simmonds, editor, The Technologist. A Monthly Record of Science Applied to Art and Manufacture, volume I, London: Kent & Co., […], OCLC 921221287, pages 132–133:

     That the papers already communicated on this subject might be rendered more complete, we have now added thereto a brief account of such other dyeing substances as are in general use. […] Dyes of animal origin, catechus, gamboges, and other similar products are excluded. […] gamboge and dragon's blood can scarce merit the title of dye-stuffs.

   • 1866, “CAMBOGE”, in Charles Knight, editor, Arts and Sciences or Fourth Division of “The English Cyclopædia”, volume II, London: Bradbury, Evans, & Co., […]; New York, N.Y.: Scribner, Welford, & Co., […], OCLC 425825929, column 529:

     At the ordinary temperature of the air camboge has little smell, but when heated it gives out a very peculiar one. Taken into the mouth it has scarcely any perceptible taste, but upon being chewed for some time it causes a sharp, somewhat acrid feeling, ending in a sweet sensation, accompanied with dryness in the mouth. […] Camboge is more extensively used as a pigment than as a medicine.

   • 1866, Frederic John Farre; assisted by Robert Bentley and Robert Warington, “Cambogia, Gamboge”, in Horatio C. Wood, Jr., editor, Manual of Materia Medica & Therapeutics. Being an Abridgement of the Late Dr. Pereira’s Elements of Materia Medica […], Philadelphia, Pa.: Henry C[harles] Lea, OCLC 14854406, pages 778–779:

     Pipe gamboge consists of cylindrical pieces, varying from one to three inches in diameter. Some of them appear to have been formed by rolling; but many of them are striated from the impression of the bamboo stems into the hollow of which the gamboge juice has been poured, […] Pipe gamboge occurs in all qualities—the finest and the worst specimens of gamboge which I ever saw having this form. […] Lump or cake gamboge occurs in masses of several pounds weight. Its quality is inferior to the finest pipe kind.

   • 1874, M. C. Cooke, “Indian Gums and Resins”, in Report by Dr. M. C. Cooke, on the Gums, Resins, Oleo-resins, and Resinous Products in the India Museum, or Produced in India. […], London: India Museum, OCLC 559009295, page 2:

     Of gum resins, the emulsive series including gamboges of all varieties will follow the gums in natural order in consequence of the facility with which they mix and form an emulsion with water.

3. A deep yellow colour.

   gamboge colour:  

   • 1811 October, Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe; W[illiam] K[irkpatrick] R[iland] Bedford, “C. Kirkpatrick Sharpe to Lord Gower”, in Alexander Allardyce, editor, Letters from and to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq. [...] With a Memoir by the Rev. W. K. R. Bedford: In Two Volumes, volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1888, OCLC 1183904, page 478:

     I have always heard, and red, that Nature is one of the chief beauties of poetry; and lo! behold an example!—for I merely turned into rhyme the pitiful ravings of two love-lorn maids, most tenderly sensible to the charms of a pair of black moustachios relieved with deep gamboges.

   • 1875 November 26, Hazard Bey, “Oriental Diplomacy. Letter X. (From a Random Reporter near Istambol to the Editor of a Diurnal elsewhere.)”, in The Pall Mall Budget: Being a Weekly Collection of Articles Printed in the Pall Mall Gazette from Day to Day: With a Summary of News, volume XV, London: Published at 2, Northumberland Street, Strand, W.C., published 1876, OCLC 811464416, page 11:

     My attention was fixed for the moment on two fair Hellenes; then on an elderly female with black head-dress fringed with gambooge, and a smart lassie in a hat, with nez retroussé and sprightly eyes.

   • 1917, Henry Handel Richardson [pseudonym; Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson], “Proem”, in The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, London: William Heinemann Ltd, OCLC 2049903; republished in The Fortunes of Richard Mahony: Comprising Australia Felix; The Way Home; Ultima Thule, book I (Australia Felix), London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1930, OCLC 7024268, page 8:

     The many human figures that went to and fro were hardly to be distinguished from the ground they trod  They were coated with earth, clay-clad in ochre and gamboge

• camboge
• gambooge (archaic)

• Appendix:Colors

gamboge (not comparable)

1. Of a deep yellow colour.
   • 1835 January, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], “Passage in the Life of Mr. Watkins Tottle. Chapter the Second.”, in The Monthly Magazine, or British Register of Literature, Sciences, and the Belles-lettres, volume I (New Series), number 1, London: Published by James Cochrane and Co., […], OCLC 53988045, page 121:

     The cab stopped, and out jumped a man in a coarse Petersham great coat, whitey-brown neckerchief, faded black suit, gambooge-coloured top-boots, and one of those large crowned hats, formerly seldom met with, but now very generally patronised by gentlemen and costermongers.

   • 1836 March – 1837 October​, Charles Dickens, “Showing, among a Variety of Pleasant Matters, how Majestic and Impartial Mr. Nupkins was; and how Mr. Weller Returned Mr. Job Trotter’s Shuttlecock, as Heavily as It Came. With Another Matter, which will be Found in Its Place.”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, OCLC 28228280, page 256:

     Beg your pardon, Sir, but this here officer o' yourn in the gambooge tops, 'ull never earn a decent livin' as a master o' the ceremonies any vere.

   • [1881 March 24, Charles V[alentine] Riley, “Descriptions of New Species and Varieties”, in General Index and Supplement to the Nine Reports on the Insects of Missouri (Department of the Interior, United States Entomological Commission Bulletin; no. 6), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, OCLC 470850699, page 72:

     [Analcis fragariae] Larva, (Fig. 14 a)—White with back arched Lamellicorn-fashion. Head gamboges yellow, glabrous, with some faint transverse striations above mouth; […]]

   • 1884 January, Percy Fitzgerald, “Sentimental Journeys in London: Old Houses”, in Tinsleys’ Magazine, volume XXXIV, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], OCLC 7243259, part the third, page 80:

     [W]e can see, about a hundred yards behind, the dilapidated house: old, still yellowish—"gambooge coloured," [Charles] Lamb called it—two-storeyed, with tall, rickety windows.

   • 1922 December 2, [Francis] Kingdon Ward, “Mr. Kingdon Ward’s Seventh Expedition in Asia. No. III. To Lichiang.”, in The Gardeners’ Chronicle: A Weekly Illustrated Journal of Horticulture and Allied Subjects, volume LXXI (Third Series), number 1875, London: 5 Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, W.C.2, OCLC 47928976, page 325, columns 2–3:

     Its gay gambooge-coloured flowers, enveloped in an elusive fragrance, are as charming as anything in the Suffructicosa section.

• gamboge on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Garcinia on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• Garcinia on Wikispecies.Wikispecies