Today, the term balm is commonly used to describe any ointment that is used for healing skin. However, when it was first introduced into the English language as basme in the thirteenth century, it specifically referred to an aromatic resin extracted from a particular type of tree. Through Old French, the word can be traced back to Latin balsamum, which could refer to either the resin itself or the tree it was extracted from (the balsam – which is also where the word originates). Delving even further back, balsamum can be traced to Ancient Greek balsamon, with similar meanings. The Greek word in turn comes from a Semitic term that likely meant “spice”, as evidenced by cognates such as Arabic basham meaning “spice”, and Hebrew bosem meaning “perfume”. According to Google Ngrams, the usage of balm peaked around the turn of the nineteenth century, but has seen a resurgence in recent years.
