ἀγάλοχον <Unspecified origin/Indo-Aryan?/Dravidian?/Iranian?; Roman period>
👉 ἀγάλοχον n. – ‘agarwood (a fragrant wood obtained from some tree species in the genus Aquilaria, esp. Aquilaria malaccensis Lam.)’ (Dsc. 1.22; Dsc., Eup. 1.80.1, 1.107.1 etc.; Orib., Coll. med. 11.Α 2; Paul. Aeg. 7.3.1), also ἀγάλλοχον (Ps.-Gal. 19.723.10, 731.12,733.10); the form ἀγάλλοχον is also a varia lectio in Dsc. 1.22 (but only in some later manuscripts).
⚠ Dsc. 1.22 (~ Orib., Coll. med. 11.Α 2): ἀγάλοχον ξύλον ἐστὶ φερόμενον ἐκ τῆς ᾿Ινδίας καὶ ᾿Αραβίας (...) – “Aloewood (= agarwood) is a wood brought from India and Arabia (...)” (trans. L.Y. Beck); Paul. Aeg. 7.3.1: ἀγάλοχον ξύλον ἐστὶν ᾿Ινδικόν (...) – “agarwood is an Indian wood (...)”. Besides, Ps.-Gal. 19.733 uses once the expression ἀγάλλοχον ᾿Ινδικόν ‘Indian agarwood’. Cf. CDG III, p. 552.57: agalicon lignum est in India (...) – “agalicon is a wood in India (...)”.
🅔 An Oriental word, originally Indo-Aryan or Dravidian – Indo-Aryan: Sanskrit agaru- and aguru- ‘agarwood tree (Aquilaria malaccensis Lam.)’, Pali agaru-, agalu-, agaḷu-, akalu- ‘the fragrant resin or wood of agarwood tree (Aquilaria malaccensis Lam.)’ etc.; Dravidian: Tamil akil ‘agarwood tree (Aquilaria malaccensis Lam.); the drug agar obtained from the tree’, Malayalam akil ‘agarwood tree (Aquilaria malaccensis Lam.)’ etc.; cf. Biblical Hebrew ʾăhālôṯ (formally pl.) and ʾăhālîm (formally pl.) ‘agarwood (of Aquilaria malaccensis Lam.)’ along with Greek ἀλωθ which is a transliteration of ʾăhālôṯ in the Septuagint (LXX: Cant. 4.14), Middle Persian awalūg ‘agarwood’ (probably from earlier *aγalūk; cf. w in Middle Persian murw ‘bird’ vs. Young Avestan mərəγa- ‘id.’), Modern Persian āluwwa ‘id.’, Syriac ʾwlwg, ʾblwg ‘id.’ (from Iranian). The closest to Greek ἀγάλοχον is the early Middle Persian form *aγalūk, but, probably, the Greeks did not adopt this word from Persian (we would expect κ instead of χ). Cf. an unlikely suggestion that ἀγάλοχον comes from Indo-Aryan *agalukha- with the suffix -kha- (this view has no confirmation in the available data).
📖 Data: CDIAL: I, 3, no. 49; CPED: 96; DED: 4, no. 13; DP: I, 2 and 8; EWAIa: III, 4; Gr.Bd. p. 118.6; HALOT: 19; KEWA: I, 17f.; SED: 4,3 and 5,1; SL: 4 and 16. Ref.: Brust 2008: 14-17; EDG: 8; Henning 1943-46: 728; ILS: 103; Lewy 1895: 36.