Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
gum dammar

gum dammar

9.9
A hard pale material from certain trees used in varnish, incense, and to make paint shiny
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : goma dammar
  • The artist added a small amount of gum dammar to her oil paints for extra gloss.

Examples

  • Restorers often use gum dammar in traditional picture varnishes.

  • The fragrant smoke from burning gum dammar filled the air during the ceremony.

  • The artist used gum dammar in her paintings.

  • You can find gum dammars at specialty craft stores.

  • Restorers often use gum dammar in traditional picture varnishes.

  • The artist added a small amount of gum dammar to her oil paints for extra gloss.

  • The fragrant smoke from burning gum dammar filled the air during the ceremony.

Synonyms

damar
vsgum dammar
  • Specialized
8 9.9

A hard, brittle material from trees used to make varnish and give a shiny finish

is the same material but noted as paler and for glazing
dammar resin
vsgum dammar
  • Specialized
9.9

A hard pale substance that trees in Southeast Asia produce and people use in varnishes and incense

is the same substance but named with the compound form
dammar
vsgum dammar
  • Specialized
9.9

A hard clear material from trees used to make varnish for paintings and wood

is paler and emphasises glazing and incense uses
gum resin
vsgum dammar
  • Specialized
6.1

A sticky natural substance from trees used to make medicines, varnish, and incense

is a single hard pale resin rather than a mixed extract

Surface Forms

gum dammar singular
gum dammars plural

Morphology

gum + dammar

The noun-noun compound simply names a specific type of gum/resin derived from dammar; knowing 'gum' (a sticky resinous substance) and 'dammar' (a particular resin) lets a learner infer it is the resin from the dammar tree used in varnishes. This is a directly compositional material-naming pattern common cross-linguistically, so the meaning is recoverable from the parts.

Etymology

Gum dammar combines gum (the sticky stuff you get from trees) and dammar, from the Malay word 'damar' for tree resin. People in Southeast Asia used this pale material as incense and mixed it into shiny 'varnish', so gum dammar now means the hard, pale 'resin' used for those purposes.