WotD: gamboge

[muckefuck]

1. das Gummigutt
2. de guttegom
3. la gutagamba, la (goma)guta
4. la gomaguta
5. la gomme-gutte
6. an chambóid
7. y gamboge
8. gumiguta
9. 등황 (藤黃), 캄보즈
10. 藤黃 ténghuáng
11. 雌黄 (しおう)

Notes: This is a special request for monshu, who's been leisurely making his way through Dalby's Tale of Murasaki. Like me, he'd heard the term "gamboge" before, but never had a clear idea what it was. I somehow got the notion that it was a type of silk like "pongee" or "shantung". It's not, it's a dyestuff and--by association--the deep yellow hue it produces or something dyed in this hue.

I need to confirm the Japanese term, since 雌黄 was pulled off of Wiktionary and in Chinese the term refers to an entirely different yellow dyestuff, orpiment. The Catalan is also merely a guess based on the Spanish--whose variants are amusing to me. Speaking of which, the Old Man was tickled by the multiplicity of forms for "gamboge". In addition to the chief one, the OED lists cambodia, cambogium, camboge, cambugium, gambaugium, gambogia, gambozia, gamboidea, gambogium, gumbouge, gambouge, gamboge, gambooge, and gambugia.

Comments

[tyrannio.livejournal.com]

I know "gamboge" primarily as a souring agent. I've heard it called "goraka" by Sinhalese Sri Lankans, and I'm told it's available in Chicago. (Strangely enough, I've never eaten it, but I like the closely related kokum.

[stiobhan.livejournal.com]

Before now I had no idea what gamboge *or* orpiment was. This was all new to me, and -- full confession -- I had to look up everything. Here's what some digging revealed:

The Kojien dictionary lists two readings for 雌黄: the regular onyomi しおう, and also an ateji reading of きに, which it explains as signifying yellow (黄) minium/cinnabar/vermilion/oxide of lead/(colored) earth (丹); it says to refer to しおう for the definitions。
Kojien gives these as the definitions of しおう:
1 old name for 石黄 (せきおう)
2 (as an abbreviation of 草雌黄 [くさしおう] [i.e., vegetable しおう]) same as 藤黄 (とうおう)
3 (because in China it was used to rub out characters) correction of literary texts

(For きに, Kojien just says "see しおう.")

Kojien's definition of 石黄 is:
A mineral composed chiefly of arsenic sulfide; yellow, having a resinous luster, and toxic. 雄黄 (ゆうおう) [i.e., "'male' yellow' as opposed to the "'female' yellow" of 雌黄]. Old name for 雌黄.

The Kojien entry for 雄黄 (ゆうおう) is "same as 石黄."

For 藤黄, Kojien has this:
1 A tropical deciduous tall tree of the Hypericaceae family, of the same genus as the mangosteen. [...]
2 A yellowish-red resin obtained by damaging the bark of the 藤黄. Insoluble in water, yielding an emulsion used as yellow paint for Nihonga. Also a weak laxative. ガンボージ [i.e., gamboge]. 草雌黄 [i.e., vegetable しおう].

Under ガンボージ [i.e., gamboge], Kojien says "same as 藤黄."

To sum up, based on the Kojien entries, at least, it looks like 草雌黄 and 藤黄 are synonyms and unambiguously mean gamboge (tree, dye, or drug), 石黄 and, especially, 雄黄 are unambiguous for "orpiment," and 雌黄 can be either.

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The big Kodansha J/E dictionary has these definitions:

雌黄: (dye/medicine) gamboge
石黄: (mineral) orpiment
(no entry for ガンボージ)

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Edict has these related entries:

雌黄 [きに] /(n) (1) orpiment/(2) gamboge/(3) falsification/alteration/
雌黄 [しおう] /(n) (1) orpiment/(2) gamboge/(3) falsification/alteration/
石黄 [せきおう] /(n) orpiment/
藤黄 [とうおう] /(n) gamboge/
丹 [に] /(n) red earth (i.e. containing cinnabar or minium)/vermilion/(P)/
ガンボージ /(n) gamboge/
ガンボージの木 [ガンボージのき] /(n) (obsc) gamboge tree/

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Eijiro has these:

Garcinia cambogia : 雌黄｛しおう｝、ガルシニア◆草雌黄｛くさしおう｝の略。
orpiment {名} : 石黄、明るい黄色
cambogia {名} : 藤黄｛とうおう｝
arsenious sulfide : 雄黄｛ゆうおう｝
red orpiment : 鶏冠石｛けいかんせき｝

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Two geology glossaries on my hard drive have these:

分類 名称 英語 晶系 化学組成 色・光沢 硬度 比重
硫化鉱物 雄黄 Orpiment 単斜晶系 As2s3 橙黄・樹脂 2 3.5
(from http://www.aist.go.jp/GSJ/~imai/info/mineral.html)

orpimente 雄黄
(from http://unit.aist.go.jp/igg/igi-rg/seika/AMT/THESAURUS.xls)

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is some impressive research! If I ever have need to discuss dark yellow pigments in Japanese, I am totally set.