Char
Char is a short English word used as a descriptor in agarwood trade lists. The general referent can be stated at the level of the ordinary English sense: the word names a burnt or scorched state, and in a trade list it is applied to material described in those terms. What it selects out — which stage of handling is meant, whether the material itself is scorched or has been treated, whether the word is a description of a state or a trade name for a line of stock — is not established here and has to be confirmed with the counterparty.
Spelling, language and market
The word is written in Latin script, and it is short, so it is sometimes joined to another word without a separator in informal notes. In a trade list it is used in English while the rest of the description may be in English or in Arabic, which is normal in this trade and is not in itself a sign of anything. Because the word is one of the shortest in the vocabulary, its meaning depends far more on the surrounding description than the letters do.
Attested usage
The word appears in short descriptions and in lists, in front of or beside a material type. It is used more consistently than the names in this vocabulary, because it is a descriptor with a shared ordinary sense, and the disagreement between sellers is about its application rather than about what the word means in general. Even so, the surrounding words matter: a description that pairs the word with a type name is saying something different from one that pairs it with a treatment.
Named examples and neighbouring spellings
A South Asian vernacular word for agarwood is also written with a different initial vowel, and the relationship between that word and this spelling is not established here. The neighbouring entries in this glossary are the material and wood-type names that the word is placed beside in the same lists. Two ordinary documents would help: a lot description in which the word appears with the full handling history, and a seller's written definition of what the word selects.
Alternative meanings
The same letters are an ordinary English word with two quite different senses: a burnt residue, and a unit of something in a computer system. A reader meeting the word in a trade list will take the first; the second is not a reading the trade supports, but it shows how short a word can carry two unrelated meanings without either being wrong. A reader may also read the word as a house name or a brand, and the trade usage does not exclude that reading.
What it does not prove
The word does not establish the species, the resin content, the oil yield, the age, the size or form of the material, or the country of origin. It establishes no grade and no processing standard. It does not establish that the material is burnt, only that the word was applied to it.
This entry gives the ordinary English referent of the word as it is used in trade descriptions, and the range of readings a short word of this kind invites. It does not establish the species, grading, composition, origin, quality or processing history of any material described with it.
- Biodiversity and application prospects of fungal endophytes in the agarwood-producing genera Aquilaria and Gyrinops (Thymelaeaceae): a reviewStates that all members of the agarwood-producing genera Aquilaria and Gyrinops are placed in CITES Appendix II. Records 92 compounds identified in agarwood, of which terpenoids are 40.22%, and names eighteen fungal genera reported to promote agarwood formation. It does not establish the quality, yield or age of any material, and it is a review rather than a regulatory instrument.
- Agarwood: A reviewStates that CITES Appendix II covers all species of Aquilaria and Gyrinops, and reports fifteen Aquilaria species distributed across the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, from Pakistan and India through southern China into Southeast Asia. It does not establish the legal status of any individual shipment in any particular jurisdiction.
OudGuide editorial review · 2026-10-20
Reviewed against the cited sources for the general referent of the term, and checked for a question-specific answer. The precise attribution was checked against general trade usage rather than against a single market, and each entry states which parts are local rather than general.