英语词汇spruce gum的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

spruce gum. Spruce gum was the first American chewing gum. All types of Picea produce an abundance of resin, this genus name for the spruce deriving from the Latin word for “pitch.” Here in America a number of cultivated spruce species—as well as other native trees like the sweet gum and juniper—have been valued from colonial days for their chewy resins. But the black or bog spruce (Picea mariana) and the red spruce (Picea rubens) are the principal producers of resin gum. The Indians introduced us to chewing gum from these trees and they, in turn, may have emulated a bear or other an- imal “gumming up” on spruce resin in prehistoric times. Hunters say that bears customarily “gum up” before they hi- bernate by swallowing quantities of spruce gum as large as a man’s fist. Chewing gum is today mainly made from synthet- ics and from chicle, the thick creamy latex of the sapodilla tree (Achras zapota), native to Central America. The Mayans chewed chicle, wrapping it in banana plant leaves to make an edible package.

Spruce gum is still collected in Maine and New England, sometimes as a small business, but in nothing like the 150-ton- a-year quantities collected in the early 1900s. This natural chewing gum (see my The Great American Chewing Gum Book, 1976) is collected in winter and comes from punctures made on the trunks of both black and red spruces the previous spring. Hayden Pearson recalled in New England Flavor (1961): “I knocked down a couple of good big chunks and took them back to the house. It was a good idea to trim the pieces of gum before I put them away in a shoebox. . . . I got rid of the bits of bark that clung, and trimmed the rough edges and any soft spots. Then from time to time I’d cut off a chunk and chew it into a pleasant purplish magenta ball. If it was first-quality gum it was chewable a considerable number of times.”

词汇	spruce gum
词源	spruce gum. Spruce gum was the first American chewing gum. All types of Picea produce an abundance of resin, this genus name for the spruce deriving from the Latin word for “pitch.” Here in America a number of cultivated spruce species—as well as other native trees like the sweet gum and juniper—have been valued from colonial days for their chewy resins. But the black or bog spruce (Picea mariana) and the red spruce (Picea rubens) are the principal producers of resin gum. The Indians introduced us to chewing gum from these trees and they, in turn, may have emulated a bear or other an- imal “gumming up” on spruce resin in prehistoric times. Hunters say that bears customarily “gum up” before they hi- bernate by swallowing quantities of spruce gum as large as a man’s fist. Chewing gum is today mainly made from synthet- ics and from chicle, the thick creamy latex of the sapodilla tree (Achras zapota), native to Central America. The Mayans chewed chicle, wrapping it in banana plant leaves to make an edible package. Spruce gum is still collected in Maine and New England, sometimes as a small business, but in nothing like the 150-ton- a-year quantities collected in the early 1900s. This natural chewing gum (see my The Great American Chewing Gum Book, 1976) is collected in winter and comes from punctures made on the trunks of both black and red spruces the previous spring. Hayden Pearson recalled in New England Flavor (1961): “I knocked down a couple of good big chunks and took them back to the house. It was a good idea to trim the pieces of gum before I put them away in a shoebox. . . . I got rid of the bits of bark that clung, and trimmed the rough edges and any soft spots. Then from time to time I’d cut off a chunk and chew it into a pleasant purplish magenta ball. If it was first-quality gum it was chewable a considerable number of times.”
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