Balsamiticness

/bælsəˈmɪtɪknəs/ noun

Definition

The quality or state of being balsamitic; the possession of soothing, healing, or fragrant balsam-like properties.

Etymology

From 'balsamitic' plus the suffix '-ness' (quality of); a rare compound that appears in older medical or poetic texts when discussing the therapeutic properties of fragrant substances.

Kelly Says

This delightfully clunky word is the kind of term that medical writers loved in the 1600s-1800s when they were trying to sound scientifically precise about essentially magical ideas—it's a linguistic monument to pre-modern medicine's obsession with categorization.

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