Balm is a shortened form of balsam, deriving from Latin
balsamum “balsam tree”, which was also used for the resin
obtained therefrom (“Balm of Mecca”). The ultimate source of the word is
Old Hebrew boshem (modern bossem) [בשם],
which denotes the balsam tree (Commiphora
opobalsamum syn. Amyris opobalsamum,
Burseraceae/Rutales) and its
resin, but also means “fragrance” or “spice” in general.
The Latin species name melissa is shortened from
Classical Greek melisso-phyllon [μελισσο-φύλλον] “bee-leaf”;
the plant is rich in nectar and commonly planted to feed bees. That name
is akin to Latin mel “honey” and also the British term for
orange rind jelly, marmalade. Similar
associations referring to bees are found in several European languages, e.g.,
Dutch bijenkruid “bee herb” or Hungarian
méhfű (also mézfű)
“bee grass”. Cf. also Chinese xiang feng cao [香蜂草] “fragrant bee plant” and
English bee balm for the related plant bergamot, Monarda didyma.
Also the Bulgarian name matochina [маточина]
refers to the bee feeding quality of lemon balm: Bulgarian
matitsa [матица] “bee queen”,
derived from Common Slavonic MAT' “mother”
(in modern Bulgarian majka [майка]).
Similar remarks apply to Czech meduňka,
Slovak medovka and Croatian matičnjak and related forms.
Another Bulgarian name of lemon balm, pcheliak [пчеляк],
is directly derived from pchela [пчела] “bee”.
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Lemon balm flowering plant
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Because of the prominent lemon fragrance, many names
of balm contain an element referring to that citrus fruit. Often, this element
is optional with emphasizing character, as in German
Zitronenmelisse (actually, Melisse is the same
plant); yet in other cases the lemon element is essential in the name, which
then often translates to “lemon plant” or similar, e.g., Portuguese
erva-cidreira, Hungarian citromfű,
Italian erba limona and Dutch citroenkruid “lemon-herb”;
in the same spirit, there are
Ukrainian lymonna trava [лимонна трава] “lemon-grass”
and Arabic rihan al-limun [ريحان الليمون] “lemon-basil” (or “lemon-fragrance”, see basil).
See lemon and lime
for the etymologies of the names of lemon mentioned here.
The Spanish name of lemon balm, toronjil, appears to be related
to Arabic turijan [تريجان] “lemon balm”
and perhaps utruj [أترج] “citron”,
but I don't know any details. Note, however, that Spanish
toronjil morado “purple lemon balm”, refers to
Agastache mexicana, another herb of the same plant family
which has a superb lemon fragrance. The latter plant is in English often
termed “Mexican Giant Hyssop” or “Lemon Hyssop”, although it is no
more related to hyssop than to lemon balm.
Swedish hjärtansfröjd “heat's delight” probably
refers less to balm's pleasant fragrance, but more to the usage of lemon balm
against nervous heart diseases in folk medicine. The same holds true for the
analogous German local name Herztrost.
In Japanese, lemon balm is known as seiyō-yama-hakka [西洋山薄荷, せいようやまはっか].
This formidable compound can be broken down to hakka “mint”
which is augmented by the element yama (see also
sichuan pepper for the readings of the Kanji
山). Thus, we get the
compound name yamahakka (literally “mountain mint”) which
denotes the native plant spurflower (Rabdosia inflexa).
The second prefix seiyō means “foreign”. Incidentally,
seiyō-hakka is the Japanese name of English-type
peppermint.
The genus name of bergamot, Monarda, was given in honour of
Nicholas Monardus, a Spanish botanist (1493–1588).
