1644.—"Huma Almadia pera serviço do dito Baluarte, com seis marinheiros que cada hum ven-se hum x(erafi)m por mes ... xs 72."—Expenses of Diu, in Bocarro (Sloane MSS. 197, fol. 175).
ALMANACK, s. On this difficult word see Dozy's Oosterlingen and N.E.D. In a passage quoted by Eusebius from Porphyry (Praep. Evangel. t. iii. ed. Gaisford) there is mention of Egyptian calendars called ἀλμενιχιανὰ. Also in the Vocabular Arauigo of Pedro de Alcala (1505) the Ar. Manāk is given as the equivalent of the Span. almanaque, which seems to show that the Sp. Arabs did use manākh in the sense required, probably having adopted it from the Egyptian, and having assumed the initial al to be their own article.
ALMYRA, s. H. almārī. A wardrobe, chest of drawers, or like piece of (closed) furniture. The word is in general use, by masters and servants in Anglo-Indian households, in both N. and S. India. It has come to us from the Port. almario, but it is the same word as Fr. armoire, Old E. ambry [for which see N.E.D.] &c., and Sc. awmry, orginating in the Lat. armarium, or -ria, which occurs also in L. Gr. as ἀρμαρὴ, ἀρμάριον.
c. B.C. 200.—"Hoc est quod olim clanculum ex armario te surripuisse aiebas uxori tuae...."—Plautus, Men. iii. 3.
A.D. 1450.—"Item, I will my chambre prestes haue ... the thone of thame the to almer, & the tothir of yame the tother almar whilk I ordnyd for kepyng of vestmentes."—Will of Sir T. Cumberlege, in Academy, Sept. 27, 1879, p. 231.
1589.—"—— item ane langsettle, item ane almarie, ane Kist, ane sait burde...."—Ext. Records Burgh of Glasgow, 1876, 130.
1878.—"Sahib, have you looked in Mr Morrison's almirah?"—Life in Mofussil, i. 34.
ALOES, s. The name of aloes is applied to two entirely different substances: a. the drug prepared from the inspissated bitter juice of the Aloë Socotrina, Lam. In this meaning (a) the name is considered (Hanbury and Flückiger, Pharmacographia, 616) to be derived from the Syriac 'elwai (in P. alwā). b. Aloes-wood, the same as [Eagle-wood]. This is perhaps from one of the Indian forms, through the Hebrew (pl. forms) ahālim, akhālim and ahālōth, akhālōth. Neither Hippocrates nor Theophrastus mentions aloes, but Dioscorides describes two kinds of it (Mat. Med. iii. 3). "It was probably the Socotrine aloes with which the ancients were most familiar. Eustathius says the aloe was called ἱερὰ, from its excellence in preserving life (ad. Il. 630). This accounts for the powder of aloes being called Hiera picra in the older writers on Pharmacy."—(Francis Adams, Names of all Minerals, Plants, and Animals desc. by the Greek authors, etc.)
(a) c. A.D. 70.—"The best Aloe (Latin the same) is brought out of India.... Much use there is of it in many cases, but principally to loosen the bellie; being the only purgative medicine that is comfortable to the stomach...."—Pliny, Bk. xxvii (Ph. Holland, ii. 212).
(b) "Ἤλθε δὲ καὶ Νικόδημος ... φέρων μίγμα σμύρνης και ἀλόης ὠσεὶ λίτρας ἑκατόν."—John xix. 39.