Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Copal

Copal (kō"pal; 277)

[Sp., from Mexican copalli, a generic name of resins. Clavigero.]

A resinous substance flowing spontaneously from trees of Zanzibar, Madagascar, and South America (Trachylobium Hornemannianum, Trachylobium verrucosum, and Hymenaa Courbaril), and dug from earth where forests have stood in Africa; -- used chiefly in making varnishes. — Clavigero