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Glite Dictionary
🌳 A tree 🍬 Aromatic resin 🪵 Reddish wood
sweet gum

sweet gum

7.7
A sticky fragrant substance from a tree used in medicine and perfume
  • noun
  • /swit ɡʌm/
  • US
translation icon : goma dulce
  • Collectors harvested sweet gum for use in early perfumes and medicines.

Examples

  • The indigenous people often used sweet gum as a natural remedy for wounds.

  • Chewing sweet gum was common before commercial chewing gum was invented.

  • I bought some sweet gum for my cough.

  • They use sweet gum in many perfumes.

  • Many herbalists believe that sweet gum can help soothe respiratory issues.

  • Traditional healers often recommend sweet gum for its medicinal properties.

  • The sap from the sweet gum tree is used in various natural remedies.

Synonyms

liquidambar
vssweet gum
  • Specialized
9.9

A sticky substance with a strong smell from sweet gum trees used in perfumes and medicines

is also used as a base for chewing products
gum resin
vssweet gum
  • Specialized
6.1

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

is a single aromatic substance from one tree used in perfumes and chewing products

Surface Forms

sweet gum singular
sweet gums plural

Morphology

sweet + gum

The noun is a compositional adjective+noun compound: 'sweet' modifies 'gum' to denote a particular kind of gum tree (and its wood). If a learner knows 'sweet' and the botanical sense of 'gum' (a tree producing resin/wood), they can infer this refers to the wood of the sweet gum tree, a common and predictable naming pattern cross-linguistically.

Etymology

Sweet gum comes from the sticky, sweet-smelling gum or 'sap' that runs from the tree. People once chewed this sap like 'chewing gum' and used it in medicines and perfumes, so the name came to mean that resin.