A yellow or golden resinous substance obtained from certain tropical trees; also spelled gamboge, used as a pigment and traditional laxative.
From Khmer/Cambodian language origins (referring to Cambodia), borrowed through Malay and Portuguese traders. The plant sources are native to Southeast Asia, and the word traveled along spice trade routes.
Gamboge/cauboge was so prized as a golden pigment that Old Masters would grind it into paint, but it was also a powerful laxative—so paintings from wealthy merchants might literally use medicine as paint, an expensive and slightly absurd status symbol.
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