Cinnamon

The bark of the Cinnamomum Zeylanicum, a plant so called botanically because growing best in Ceylon. A variety often substituted for it, cassia, comes from China. Cinnamon was known in early times to the Hebrews. It was used in making the anointing-oil (Ex. xxx. 23), and,further, as a mere perfume (Prov. vii. 17). In the Song of Solomon (iv. 14) it is mentioned along with other fragrant woods. Gesenius and Lagarde consider the Hebrew ("ḳinnamon") to be a loan-word from the Greek (κιννάμωμον), although Herodotus (iii. 111) states that the Greeks themselves borrowed it from the Phenicians. It seems that both Hebrew and Greek took it from the Phenician.

E. G. H.G. B. L.