Etymology Dictionary

CAMPHOR,  the solid, concrete juice of some kind of laurel.  (F.,—Arab.,—Malay.)   Spelt camphire in the Song of Solomon, i. 14 (A.V.).   Massinger speaks of camphire-balls; The Guardian, iii. 1.—F. camphre, 'the gumme tearmed camphire;' Cot.   [The i seems to have been inserted to make the word easier to pronounce in English.]—Low Lat. camphora, camphor; to the form of which the mod. E. camphor has been assimilated.   β. A word of Eastern origin.   Cf. Skt. karpúra, camphor (Benfey, p. 164); Arabic káfúr, camphor, Palmer's Dict. col. 480.   γ. All from Malay kápúr, lit. chalk; the full form being Barús kápúr, i.e. chalk of Barous, a place on the W. coast of Sumatra; see J. Pijnappel's Malay-Dutch Dict. p. 74.   'Kápúr bárus, the camphor of Sumatra and Java, called also native camphor, as distinguished from that of Japan or kápúr tohóri, which undergoes a process before it is brought to our shops;' Marsden, Malay Dict. p. 249; where we also find 'kápúr, lime.' [†]

ADDENDA

Spelt camfere in Arnold's Chron. ed. 1811, p. 235 (about 1502).