Emily Dickinson Lexicon

O-PO-BAL'SAM, n. [L. Gr. οπος, juice, and L. balsamum.]

The balm or balsam of Gilead. It has a yellowish or greenish yellow color, a warm bitterish aromatic taste, and an acidulous fragrant smell. It is held in esteem as a medicine and as an odoriferous unguent and cosmetic. The shrub or tree producing this balsam is Balsamodendron Gileadense, which grows spontaneously in Arabia Felix. Encyc.