Etymology Dictionary

ALOE,  the name of a plant.  (Gk.)   'Aloe is an hearbe which hath the resemblance of the sea-onion,' &c.; Holland's Pliny, bk. xxvii. c. 4.   Cotgrave has 'Aloës, the herb aloes, sea-houseleeke, sea-aigreen; also, the bitter juyce thereof congealed, and used in purgatives.'   In like manner we still speak of 'bitter aloes;' and Wyclif has aloes, John, xix. 39, where the Vulgate has aloës, really the gen. case of the Lat. aloë, used by Pliny, and borrowed from the Gk. ἀλόη, the name of the plant, used by Plutarch, and in John, xix. 39.   ¶ Der. aloe-wood; a name given to a totally different plant, the agallochum, because one kind (the Aquilaria secundaria) yields a bitter secretion.   The word agallochum is of Eastern origin; cf. Skt. aguru, aloe-wood; also Heb. masc. pl. ahálím, formed from a sing. ahal, aloe-wood, or wood of aloes. [†]

ADDENDA

Cf. lignum aloes in Mandeville, Trav. pp. 218, 241; 'galle and aloes,' Test. of Love, in Chaucer's Works, 1561, fol. 286, col. 2.   The word agallochum is Aryan, not Semitic; Gesenius says that the Heb. ’ahálím is not a Semitic word, but of Indian origin.   Cf. Skt. aguru, aloe-wood, appearing in various Ind. dialects as aghil, agaru, aguru; see Wilson's Skt. Dict.