A fragrant resin or balsam obtained from certain South American trees, used in perfumes and incense.
From Portuguese 'cumaru' or Spanish 'cumarú', derived from indigenous Tupi language 'cumaru'. The word traveled from South American indigenous peoples through colonial Portuguese into European languages.
This word is a linguistic fossil showing how colonial trade routes created word highways—spices and resins from the Amazon entered European languages unchanged because merchants just adopted what local people called them.
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