Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1892 — “Gum.” [ARTICLE]

“Gum.”

There are several words in common use in the English language that came into it from the Egyptian—from the time of the dynasties long centuries before our era. One of these is gum. So far as the dictionaries tell, the word takes back to the Latin gummi, or the Greek Kommi. A curious Egyptian heiroglyph of the time of Queen Hatasou gives kemi-ent-anta—gum of incense. This Egyptian word carried into the Greek and Latin took on slight changes. It is the gum of the present day; the same as Isadora, a well-known feminine name, is from Isis—an Egyptian virgin goddess, mother of Horus—the whole word, meaning the “gift of Isis.” With such tenacity do the earliest words cling to life—so that the words used before the flood are on our tongues to-day coming down through all the nations, reigns, and ages.—[Davenport (Iowa) Democrat.