ARABIC INTO MEDIEVAL LATIN.pdf

ARABIC INTO MEDIEVAL LATIN

By J. D. LATHAM

Western Qiristendom's contacts with the Muslim world duringthe Middle Ages left an unmistakable mark on the vocabularyof medieval Latin (ML). The main reason for the phenomenonwas, of course, the transmission of Muslim scientific, medicaland philosophical literature to the West by scholars dedicated tothe translation of Arabic texts.1 In the tenth and eleventh cen-turies certain texts on astronomy and probably on mensurationand mathematics were translated in Spain-at that period theprincipal area of Christian-Muslim contact.3 In the eleventhcentury the medical translations of Constantinus Africanusappeared in southern Italy, and then around 1150 the firstphilosophical works were made available by Dominicus Gundi-salvi, a leading light of the Toledan school. By the end of thetwelfth century a wide range of scientific and philosophicaltreatises had been translated in Spain, and it is with these worksthat the names of Gundisalvi, Gerard of Cremona and Plato ofTivoli are especially associated. Among the Toledan translatorswere to be found two Englishmen, Adelard of Bath and Robertof Chester, and in the thirteenth century it is Michael Scot whoattracts our attention. From this time onwards work on Arabictexts continued until almost all material felt to be worth whilehad been done into Latin, either in Spain or elsewhere.3

Not all technical terms encountered by the translators wererendered into ML, and indeed some were not even translatable.Accordingly they were merely transcribed. When the questionof transcription arose, however, the translator could be facedwith a problem: if the word was corrupt, badly written or lackingdiacritical points (see below, pp. 3 3 ff.), he had to fall back on hisown judgement. Now, although in the vast majority of caseshis judgement was obviously sound, his guess could, on occa-sion, be less than inspired and at worst even result in perplexingbalderdash (see in the word-list below s.w. arisbot, baro, btrile,etc). Nor is that all. Words correctly transcribed by the trans-

1 On this subject see in particular D. M. Dunlop, Arabie Science in theWest, Pakistan Hist. Soc PubL 35 (Karachi, 1965). See also CambridgiHistory of Islam (CU.P., 1970), n, 851-£8.

* Dunlop, op. cit. p. 36. » Ibid.30


lator could be distorted out of all recognition by one copyistand then by a succession of others. Confronted with unfamiliarterms and a ML script in which certain letters were frequentlyindistinguishable from one another - to say nothing of the snaresinherent in a system permitting contractions and suspensions -a scribe could transform a simple word like alkibrit (below s.v.)into albubit, algibub, alkybric or some other conundrum. Finally,when the printing-press made its appearance, another potentialsource of error was introduced; for, not only were certainletters so similar as to be confused by the typesetter, but therewas, as there still is, the danger of straightforward printing errors.

From the foregoing observations it will be clear why myfellow members of the British Academy's Medieval LatinDictionary Committee1 have encouraged me to publish a paperwhich will answer many, if not alL of the questions that are boundto arise in the minds of those interested in the etymologies ofML words of known or suspected Arabic origin. In the follow-ing pages, then, I shall firstly elaborate some of the points Ihave already touched upon. (I must, however, stress that myresearches into the complexities of the whole subject of Arabicinto ML are not yet sufficiently advanced to enable me toaccord some topics the full systematic treatment they requireand to formulate certain orthographic and philological principleswhich, when established on more solid foundations than I canas yet provide, will lighten the labours of future workers in thefield. My observations should therefore be regarded merely asintroductory notes to a study still in progress.) Secondly, Ishall list the lemmata for fascicules A and B as supplied by theeditor of the dictionary and present my pronouncements onactual or possible etymologies.

(a) Palaeojtfapbic errors in tbe Arabic. As is well known, the riseof Muslim science and philosophy began with the translationand study of works inherited from earlier cultures. Since

1 The dictionary, rrtitcd by my norr)f«alri»t R. E. T.atViam forma part of aninternational project, the history of which is mmnnriwH in J. PL Baxterand C Johnson, in Medieval Latin Word-List (O.U.P., 1934) and R. E. Tatham,Revised MLWL (O.U.P., 1965), and treated more folly in Sir MortimerWheeler's Tbe British Atademj 1949-1968 (O.U.P. for the Academy, 1970).The work is based on British sources (in the widest sense) and covers theperiod 6th-i6th cent.

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Alexander's time eastern Hellenism in particular had exerted a pro-found influence on all the civilized lands of the Near East, and it wasfrom this cultural substratum that the scientific movement whichdeveloped rapidly under the auspices of the Abbasids duringthe ninth century derived its vital spirit.1 From its inception themovement was closely associated with Gondeshapur (Junday-sabur), a cosmopolitan centre of scientific and philosophicallearning established by the Byzantine Nestorians in SasanidPersia.2 Though nowadays marked only by the ruins of Shahabadin south-west Iran, Gondeshapur in the heyday of the Abbasidcaliphate was a major source from which the accumulated teach-ings of Alexandria and Antioch, Edessa and Nisibis flowed intoBaghdad. Greek works were translated into Syriac and intoArabic from the Syriac or the original Greek. By comparisonwith Greek, Syriac or Persian, Arabic was not, at this stage ofits history, the most suitable medium for translations of scien-tific literature since it did not possess a ready-made technicalvocabulary. Scientific terminology presented problems in mostfields, but nowhere were they more abundant and acute thanin the domain of materia medka, where the lexical problem wascomplicated by the fact that botanical species vary even indifferent parts of the Mediterranean basin, let alone other partsof the world. To deal with the difficulty of nomenclature forwhich they could or would not find Arabic synonyms, scholarsadopted three solutions: either they left the foreign term as itwas, merely spelling it out in Arabic characters (with or withoutexplanation), or they rendered it by a Persian synonym (or whatthey took to be such), or, if they knew the literal meaning ofthe term and found it readily translatable, they produced acaique in Arabic (e.g. Ai0og OEAT|V{TT|S aJ-bajar al-qamart,povryAcoccrov lisdn atb-tbaar, which are direct translations).3

i On the Hellenic and T«"'qn Neat East and the general background tothe translation movement see F. E. Peters, Aristotlt and the Arabs (NewYork U.P.-London U.P., 1968), pp. 33-68. For general views of scienceand medicine in Islam see Cambridg History of Islam, n, 741-79; D. M. Don-lop, Arab Civilisation to A.D. IJOO (London-Beirut, 1971), pp. 204-30;S. H. Nasr, Scienet and Civilisation in Islam (Harvard U.P., 1968).. * SeeEP, n, i i ^ f c

» On the transcription of Greek terms in Arabic characters see Dubler,Diose. n, xvii-lvii. On Dioscorides, whose itipl OXTR IctTpnrffc was firsttranslated from Greek into Syriac before passing into Arabic, see EP, n349 £ Hunayn b. Ishiq (on whom see EP, m, 5 78 ff.) and his school avoidedtranscription where possible and thus laid the foundations of an Arabicscientific and technical vocabulary.

3 *


It almost goes without saying that, in the hands of scribesunfamiliar with Greek and Persian, borrowings from thesetongues ran a much higher risk of distortion than caiques.Moreover, nothing was more calculated to compound the riskthan the Arabic script, the evolution and nature of which isperhaps best described for the general reader by ProfessorA. F. L. Beeston. Having noted the appearance of Arabic scriptproper in the early seventh century, this author continues:

Sporadic attempts were nude.. .to resolve the multiple ambiguities ofthe letter values by the use.. .of dots.. .In this way an alphabet oftwenty-eight letters developed, of which only six would be unam-biguous if the device of dotting had not been adopted. These dots,although thus an integral part of the letter, remained somewhatsporadically used in early and medieval times.

It was not until the eighth century.. .that a system was developed. . .by which short vowels were marked by symbols placed above orbelow the consonant which they follow in speech; other symbolsplaced above the letter marked the absence of a following vowel, andlength of a consonant. But these marks never came into generaluse.. .*

In circumstances such as those described there was clearlyample scope for scribal errors. The dots, or diacritical points,could be omitted, misplaced or displaced, and they could evenbe generated by spots of ink accidentally dropped from a pen.Given a sound consonantal ductus, the omission of points mayseem preferable to the provision of erroneous ones, but at somestage in the transmission of an important text the question ofsupplying points was bound to arise, and indeed the matter ofpoints, together with that of vowels, just could not be avoidedwhen it came to translation from Arabic into ML. When theproblem was in fact faced, the solution provided could be wideof the mark, as is most strikingly illustrated in the emergenceo£ftdr.qd(Gt. vdpiai) as berile in ML. To add to the confusion, thediacritics of/ and q were not the same in the Muslim West asin the East: in Muslim Spain, for instance, the scribe wouldmark his / with one dot below the letter and his q with oneabove, whereas his counterpart in the East would place one dot

1 Tie Arabic LangfUff Today (Hutchinson U.L., .London, 1970). Arabian,of course, will be familiar with what he has to say; but in this paper I needto consider both the Arabist and the medieval Larinist. If to the one I makepoints that are elementary to the other, it should be realized that they aremade for the sake of the other.

3 33 B8I7i


above his/and two above his q. To translators accustomed to anoriental hand and confronted with some unfamiliar word thisMaghribI practice could be a veritable snare. Without attemptingto explore the full range of possibilities I consider the followinggroups of letters as the main source of what we may convenientlyterm "diacritical error": (i) initial1 and medial b, tftb(t), n,f, q,

j/r, a longish downstroke in the initial form of any of this groupof letters could, if undotted, be confused with /, and converselyan / with a shortish downstroke might, in the initial form, beconfused with an undotted initial form of any of the same group;

V)J, !>,M(M,t>); (iiO 4 Jk U); <fr) r, t ; (•) ' . J* CO; W /, 4\(vii) the voiced pharyngal * and the voiced postvclar fricative^

While some medieval scribes combined patience with a veryhigh standard of calligraphy, others took less pains and were aptto allow the idiosyncrasies of their own hand a greater or lesserdegree of free play. Since some letters, if carelessly written,could easily be mistaken for others, it is not then surprising tofind-errors arising from malformation. The commonest lettersin this category may be grouped as follows: (i) d, r; (ii) w, r;(iii) &, £; (iv) final r ot z, final n\ (v) final d and final /; (vi)initial3 and - though not so frequently - medial/, b (MaghribI);(vii) initial q and initial n (MaghribI); (viii) final n and final q(MaghribI).

To round off this select list of confusibilia in Arabic palaeo-graphy, a few final words on the MaghribI script will not go amiss.What must be stressed in this connection is that a script somarkedly different in style from any of the usual eastern systemsof writing* could easily take a translator unawares, especiallywhen confronted with technical terms. Some of the pitfalls canbe perceived from what has already been said, but in additionto these there are others of which only three need be mentioned

i "Initial" is not to be taken as implying that the letter does not occurin the middle of a word; if the preceding letter cannot be linked with thatwhich follows, the latter must assume the initial form.

* On phonology see Beeston, op. fit. pp. 16-25.* See n. i above.* The standard copybook style (noskb) which evolved in the ninth century

is characterized by "graceful free-flowing curves". In later centuries otherstyles developed in various parts of the East, but the West clung to a scriptrooted in an early eastern tradition imported by the conquerors of Spainand then isolated in the area. The inspiration was die Kufic style, a rather"stiff and somewhat angular and spiky" script. See Beeston, op. cit. pp. 117 £

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here. The first resides in d, in which the aJif may be executedwith so vigorous a downstroke (not encountered in the East)that it terminates in a marked loop below the main script lineand so presents itself to the unpractised eye as a final / (cf.ndr.qd>bdril, ML berile). The second lies in the execution offinal -ib (often for ; + the feminine morpheme transliterated-iyatylt))1 in such a way that it may be mistaken for the oriental-id, and the third in final r, which may often closely resemble theoriental final y.

To sum up, the number of possible permutations is relativelyhigh. Ideally, the surest method of establishing the etymologyof a word known to derive from a translated Arabic text is totrace it to the original Arabic source; but if this is not possible,it is always worth while to visualize a consonantal ductus whichmay be taken as a point of departure.

(b) PaJaeograpbic errors in ML.1 With ML it is not as easy,broadly speaking, to generalize about potential sources of errorand resemblances between letters as it is with Arabic All in all agreater part (is played by the period, the country and the in-dividual hand, and a discussion of the combined effects of thesefactors would be a lengthy matter quite beyond the scope ofthese notes. Nevertheless it is possible to single out some of therecurrent sources of trouble in the field and period of immediateinterest to us. In the first place errors commonly stem fromconfusion between the following letters: (i) single-bowled a, ci;(ii) double-bowled a, ct in ligature; (iii) b, h; (iv) b, 1 (especiallywhen double or combined); (v) c, t, e, i, ct in ligature, d; (vi)f, long s; (vii) f-, st-; (viii) ii, iu, m, n, ni, u, ui, etc, where thereis a succession of minims, i.e. the short perpendicular strokesfrom which i, m, n, and u3 are formed according to require-ments; (ix) h, b, Ii; (x) tailed "Arabic-2" type r, z; (xi) r, t.Initial capitals also present problems, the following being com-mon confusibilia: (i) A, D; (ii) B, G, H; (iii) C, G; (iv) E, O;(v)H,N,B;(vi)K,R.

To save time and space the ML scribe used a system of abbre-viations which permitted him, among other things to drop

1 The frmininr morpheme possesses characteristics both of b (trans-literated by some Axabists and ignored by others as a mute letter) and t.For details see ibid. pp. 22, 27, 45, 53.

* A useful reference work (though obviously of restricted scope) isL. C Hector, The Handwriting of English Docxmats (2nd ed., London, 1966).More general works are mentioned in its bibliography.

* See ibid. pp. 27 f., 40.

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letters from words.1 From this practice the omission of r or -er(often represented by a mere loop) could result Again, the useof a dash of whatever kind above vowels to represent m and ncould, in words of foreign origin, easily lead to the loss of thoseconsonants. Suspension (omission of the end of a word) andcontraction (omission of letters from the middle) could alsomake for obvious difficulties. Moreover, the whole system ofabbreviation was complicated by the following factor:

The medieval system did not aspire to the mechanical precision of ashorthand in which each symbol is given a constant equivalence; andthe shape of a mark is not always a n-rfain indication of its function inits context. In particular it will be found that many of the marks whichare special or significant when they occur in contractions may be no-thing of the kind when they terminate suspended forms.2

Finally, one has to reckon with dittograph'y and haplography(arising under certain circumstances from haplology). Of thetwo, the former is the more common in the case of Arabicwords (e.g. albababor for albabor (aJ-'abSr), albabaca for albaca(al-haq'a)}.*

(/) Typographical errors in early printed books. These could arisefrom (a) faulty reading of the MS from which the text was setup; (b) human error in typesetting; (e) superficial resemblancesbetween certain letters, notably initial capitals, such resemblancesdepending on the particular style of letter adopted. Dubler hasdrawn special attention to errors arising from the confusion of Cand T, K and R, N and B, N and H, d and k / and an examinationof his Laguna word-list as well as that provided by Guigucsin his - often not too scholarly - attempt to identify Serapion'sterms will reveal others which need to be noted.s

(d) Tie letters of tie ML alphabet and Arabic equivalents. Needlessto say, ML translators did not develop systems of transliterationthat would satisfy the demands of modem scholarship. Nor didconsistency unduly worry them. I therefore think- it useful tofurnish a list of letters from the Latin alphabet and to indicateunder each head those Arabic consonants (in this context moreimportant than vowels) to which they may correspond. It shouldbe noted that in this list all words cited as examples with no

1 Sec ibid. pp. 29 S. * Ibid. p. 29.* CaJtftdrier dt Cordoxe, pp. 115, 179. On dittography and haplography

see Hector, op. cit. p. 47. 4 Lag. pp. 149 f.• Those from other source* derive from the word-lists in Lag. pp. 15 3 fL

and Scrap, pp. 481 fL

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following transliteration will be found in my word-list in sectiont w o below.1

c: k, kb, ^ (cg . alcohol, albacalay, almucabok); in isolated instances:gb (cafat/g& fif, Lag.); & (alcanna < alchanna).

c (5) 's,£b,z (e.g. camech/jvawa/fc, yicharamjsbukaran, Scrap.; alcubd);in isolated instances: db (cararihaIdbardrlb, Lag. probably reflecting thepronunciation of db as £);/(cahade//«'<£*, wxcc&lnarjis, Serap., probablyreflecting the pronunciation of aflricated/ as voiced palatal fricative/or sibilant 2); tb (cheunce\Mnmtbi, Serap., probably reflecting pronun-ciation of the unvoiced interdental fricative tb as voiceless alveolarfricative s).

db- b,k\kb, ^ (cg . chenne/Amsa', vulg. bemta, Lag., cf. alcheffaJ-burf,chcmps/bimrmf, Lag., yzhtoichlyabrub, Scrap.; alchimia; nisgmgrh (sees.v. asaniat); in isolated instances sb (achneen (for achneeh)/«jAw,

Lag.)-d'• d, 4, db, t, tb, j (e.g. adul; alhidada; sa.debjsadAab, Lag.; acarud;

aludel, cf. chabdalhadid/££o£/£ al-badid, Lag., nahadjmugbdtb, Scrap.;adlen//£#/», cf. handal/irogd/, Lag., mochial ha^daxnjmukbkb d-'a%oM, Scrap.).

dh: d, db, 3; (e.g. hadhzdh/btqiad, cf. huirtidhjbummdd, kodhabjqu^b,Scrap.; dbcanc/dbardrfp, Serap.; adhaya/'ajiytf (for 'eqlfd), Lag., cf.haidham/'cfrZar, Serap.).

f: occasionally appears for b, b in words of Spanish provenance.g: £t,j (affiricated prepalatal) (e.g. algarab; zeg/^' , Lag.; in isolated

instances q (alfag, cf. gaxch/qurf, Serap.). In the case of Spanish wordspassing into ML g is likely to represent k, kb, qwa (gua-), etc (e.g.aêlga, algorismus, algasullus (alguacil < al-wastfr).*

ge, gi:y (aflxicated prepalatal), notably in cases where/ is in the finalposition (e.g. almagest, aziege, algiebar (see s.v. algebra), alvederagi).

h: b, b, ' (eg . alhigera, almuharran, alhidada; the use of h to trans-literate the letter 'ayn should be particularly noted; cf. alahacab;n1mn*ghar; hudes/'ddas, hoad/W, Lag.; Haly/'AlI (name)); in isolatedinstances/(hataijfufr, Scrap.; cf. my comment under f); ^(hanabroch/qunbara(t), haraha/ijwr'(<7), hasabel Aaaaicfqafab aJ-dbarfra, Serap.), inwhich cases h either represents a misreading of k in ML or reflects acolloquial pronunciation of q as a glottal stop;3 kb (hamc/kbfmf. Lag.).

i (as an independent consonant, i.e. not combined with g, etc ,followed by a vowel): / (affricated prepalatal), j (e.g. ietgpljarfir,ieasjjau^, ieaaxjjaâr, merzaaa&jmarânjUsb, st^cmfsaJjam, Lag.; tere-

1 I have not given page references for Lag. or word numbers for Scrap,since items are in both cases listed alphabetically and can be traced sttbvtrbis.

1 On g < k, £b, q and gu < w in Spanish see Glos. pp. 13, 15, 21 andSteiger, pp. 203 &., 208 &., 225 ff., 291 S.

1 I am somewhat sceptical about this second possibility, but see Guiguesin Serap. pp. 478 £

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Diabin/taraft/uHfj, vabotzlyabriib, iantum/yd»A%r (for jtmtSt), iezemin/jdsamin).

k: k, kb, q (eg. alkekengi; kamirjjsbamr, Serap.; alkali).p : b (on bb as p in SpAr., see s.v. adrop), / (e.g. asep (s.v. aseb),

almagrip; pistechjfustag, Lag.; paae[ffatva, Serap.).p h : / ( e g . asaphatum, alphesora, alphachinus).s: s, f, sb, z (often ss) (eg. berberis; seber/sabar, Lag.; assub, albe-

sardi, alcassinum).sc: sb (e.g. scahar/jAa'r, sceb/sbabb, scobnm/tbubram, Serap.).t: A A tk> td' marbufa (fern, morpheme)1 (e.g. almustakim, albotim;

hn&tfkurrdtb, chitira./Jkatbird, aitrnzdjitb/nid, Lag.; alchalaieth/ju/fc&d-bayyaif), alfass&at/al-fasfasaQ), Lag.; asaphatum, alefenkti, alkanet(see s.y. alcanna).

th: /, /, tb, d (c.g. tuth//», tsuaathlfarjtbftb, Lag.; athel/<rf£/, Serap.;zebeth albahar/^dW al-babr, Lag.; turbith//wrW/, zurumbeth/ânio»-fei/, Scrap.; in isolated instances £ (athfer/aj}Sr, Scrap.).

u/v: », £ (in words of Spanish provenance; see Gios., zo and belows.v. aJJotaj) (e.g. uaeg, Scrap., vage, *Lajg.\wajj%, vesmc/wAr^fa, vice/wars, Serap.; alvederagi; Aven (and variants)/Ibn (in names)).

x: sb (especially in words of Spanish provenance; cf. Glos. 17) (eg.xshactjsbafir, laictlsbajar, xetbinfsbarblrt, Scrap.); also for Jkbsb. kbs(altaraxacon; saxax/saraAbs for sarkbas).

z: / ( < 9) (eg. akz, almnzahar, azimuth, azoara; in isolated instancesJ£ (by confusion of the latter with s (almizadir)).

Additional notes

(i) As all Arabists know, the definite article / (aJ) is written as suchin standard Arabic, but assimilates in speech to /, tb, d, $, r, %, s, sb,ft 4* A Zf '» n> 1° certain dialects g,j, k, q, b, f, m2 fall into the samecategory. In ML some translators left the article as it stood in writtenArabic, while others assimilated it to the letters requiring it by literaryrules. In some ML words, however, the / is assimilated to other letters(eg. abarath, skctjaJ-qatt, agileuzlaJ-jiUaw^, Serap.), though underwhat influences or circumstances I am not yet prepared to say.

(ii) The letter h representing b, p and' may be lacking in ML words(eg. gmKfa> alaste) because such words entered ML via Europeanpronunciations or because in the course of time such pronunciationstended to fade the letter out

Qii) Vowels are a matter which I have not yet studied in depth. It iswith some trepidation, then, that I offer the following notes, which

1 See above p. 35 n. 1.* C£ E. Ullendorfi; "The Form of the Definite Article in Arabic" in

Arabic and Islamit Studies m Honor of Hamilton A. R. Gibb, ed. G. Makdisi(Harvard-Leiden, 1963), p. 633. In the dialect of Fez (Morocco) the articleis assimilated to b, g, k, m.

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take no account of such important factors as positions in words, theinfluence of neighbouring consonants, e tc: e frequently correspondsto a (Jathd) and d; ei and ai to the diphthong ay; eu and au to diediphthong aw; ie to / (but also -iy&-); o and sometimes oa to S; octo -«ci-.

(iv) The ML terminations -inus and -ilis tend to be generated by theArabic termination -I.1

(v) There seems to be a tendency both in the literal translation andin the transcription of an Arabic term of a compound nature to omitthe qualifying element which is really essential to the correct under-standing of the term (see, e.g., niaVipVit, alaz, alkiffil).

Abarath (SB 10: cerusa). White lead, ceruse. [Ar. al-bariiq* "the gleam-ing [white]", i.e. ceruse.] Not recorded in SuppL, but see MM no. 29(on isfiddj, ceruse): "c'est al-bSrHq ('le brillant'), et son nom dans lepeuple est aJ-bayda*('le blanc")". Cf. IB 1, 83: "In the city of Tunis andits Ifdqiyan provinces bSriq is a term for white lead (isfldk^ ar-rasds)."From SpAr. aJ-bayda1 (SuppL s.v.) we have Sp. aJbayaJde, ceruse. TheLat. wd., in which -th has been misread as -th, may have been infl, bydbar, lead (SuppL s.v.), calx of lead (Redhouse, Turkish and EnglishLexicon, 1921).4

Acaron (AJph. 198: zaitaron vel acaron, i. psillium). Fleabane (bot.),i.e. Plantago psyllium. [Pr. Ar. qafUnd fr. Syr. Cf. OSp. ârcatonawhence app. "zaitaron" widi misreadings in Lat. of r as /, c as /, /as r) ad. SpAr. ha^raqafUnd (SuppL s.v., Glos. 36j, GVR no. 460),QAr. bh^-qafUnd "flea-seed".] The form aearon may well have been in-fluenced by or confused with Gr. dbcopov (Ar. aqdrSn, GVR no. 221),sweet flag, or Gr. foopov, asarabacca, or Gr. cococpi, mite. In connexionwith the latter we may note Ar. burgbHtbi^(adj. fr. hurgbHtb, flea), fl<*qKflT»c(IB, 1, 90).

1 See s.w. alcassinum, alphachinui, assassinas, bedainus, etc, andadQis.

* I do not give all the loci supplied to me by Mr TatVtqmt bat only thosewhich I have felt essential or usefoL Nor have I recorded all the ML variantforms of words which I have had at my disposal. Both types of omissionarise from the need to keep this paper within reasonable bounds. In present-ing this word-list I gratefully acknowledge advice and assistance from Profes-sor J. A. Boyle (Persian), Mr R. E. Latham (ML), Mr Mervyn Richardson(Akkadian, Syriac, etc) and Professor P. J. Collard (medicine).

» In LK, 226 n. 417 bfrweq is erroneous; the form given in LKindl 229no. 8 is correct

4 This lexicon often includes words and meanings drawn from Ar. butnot registered in Arabic dictionaries.

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Acarud,-os {Alpb. 162: sarcoas, sarcocolla, acarud, interpretaturgliconum, glutinum; guma est). Sarcocolla, Persian gum, i.e. Astragalussarcocolla. [Ar. attâriUJSffansârilt f. Pers. anjarut\-%arut (MM no. 4 ;M-S no. j7 in 1120 f.).] The Lat. wd. may derive from SpAr. or atleast a Sp. form.1 On OSp. asprott, aâro, see Glos. 19 j s.v. andantes.

Acelga, -as (ALF. ANGL. Plant. 1 12: quedam herbe ad duasextremitates declinant ut acelga). Beet. [OSp. aftlgp f. Ar. as-silq,beet, It. Beta vulgaris, and others (cf. ADW 43; SuppL s.v.).] Silqis said by Dozy to derive f. Gr. OIKEAOS, but the Gr. itself may well beof Semitic origin (cf. LK 204; LKindl, 284 f.). Dozy is mist-aW n insupposing aftlga to stem from the n. of unity as-silqa (Glos. 33).* Inthe ML translation of the Ar. Calendrier de Cordoue (173) silq is renderedsicla.

Achadteir {SB 10: centaurea). (?) Knapweed, i.e. Centaurea. [? Ar.al-qanfuriyiinj-qinfdriyiin £. Gr. TO KEvrocOpiov or al-qanfariya (Supply s.v.)f. Gr. f\ KEvravplr|.] Suspension in ML or conversion of the less familiarAr. botanical term into the common commercial term aJ-qinfdr (quintal)could account for the loss of -iyibij-iya. Given a poor Maghribi handand displacement of diacritical points and vowel signs, aqaqifdr foraJ-qinfdr is perfectly plausible.

Adilis (J. GAD. i n v. 2: herba adilis est herba lupi interficiens cum,et est satirion). 1. Wolf's-bane, aconite. [Pr. Ar. ad-dibi colloq. form ofadb-dM'bi (adj. f. adb^bTb, wolf) for qStil adb-d£Tb "wolfs slayer'VLe. Aconitum napellus (IBLc no. 734/EB n, 44, where the plant is saidto be synonymous with kbdniq adb-d^b "wolf's strangler").4] ForSiggel {ADW 31), however, the latter is Aconitum napellus and theformer Doronicum pardalianches.5 On adil as a corruption of adib{adbr&fb) see Suppl. 1,48 3. 2. Satyrion. [Pr. Ar. qdtilakhib " its brother'sskyer", Le. Orchis (IBLc no. 1733/IB rv, 4; ADW 57).] Here adiliswould be a corruption of abMs\acbilis, Lat adj. f. abi{B)facbi{b), in-correctly formed from a£Jpb by false analogy.

Admiralltu, -ins (also: admirabilis, -aldus, -andus, -atus, amiraldus,-alius, -allus, amiras (earliest ref.), amiralius, mirabilis) (M. PAR.Maj. 1 272: 5622 Machometus.. .in regno Saracenorum quatuorpretores statuit, quos admiralios vocavit; ibid, n 410: admiralium

1 The loss of n, on the other hand, may be a ML pakeographic error.* Qsite unaccountably, Dozy often fails to perceive that the final -a in

Sp. wds. of Ar. origin does not invariably reflect or correspond to the fern,termination a {td' marbSfa; see n. 13). See, eg., adargama, almadraba,atakya {Glos. s.w.) where the etymologies are incorrectly given as Ar. fern,forms.

* Cf. CMV 163: interfector adib. 4 Cf. ibid. 505: strangolator adib.5 An instance of the confusion to which some botanical terms are readily

exposed.

4O


Murmelin; RISHANGER 69: quidam admiralius nacdonis Sarra-cenice, que dignitas apud nos consulatus vocatur, etc. etc). 1. Emir,Muslim commander or governor; 1. (with Murmelin or the like)Commander of the Faithful (ancient title of the caliphs); 3. Italiangovernor, podesta; 4. admiral, naval commander (Sicily, 11J7; Fr.and Gasc; EngL and Scot) [Ar. amir, commander, governor, prince].The Lat. wd., infl. by admirari, has an important bearing on EngL"admiral" the etymology of which is often given as amtr+the definitearticle aJ- belonging to some following term in genitival annexation(see, e.g., SOED). This most curious fusion was questioned at somelength by Dozy as long ago as 1869 (Glos. 164 f.). There can be nodoubt that the terminations -alms, etc, are Lat. and have no connexionwith Ar.

Admiiavittu, -ins (ORD. VJLT. DC 16: s 1099: Babylonicus admiravisusAscalone est ct ibi.. .ingens bellum preparat; M. PAR. Mitt. 1 1)4:S1099 dux Normannorum..., admiravisii standardum a longe con-siderans...). Commander-in-Chief. [Pr. Ar. amir aj-juyHsb (for amiral-jvy&sb,1 the first j infl. by colloq. and assimilated to the second),"commander of the armies".] For the form admir- see s.v. admiraUus.In the second part of the wd. misreading of minims accounts for -vi-(instead of -ith).

Adrop (ROB. ANGL. Akh. 518b:.. .plumbum, quod alio nomineadrop interpretatur). Lead (alch.) [Ar. usrubb f. Pers. usrup\-b (nowsurb)]. The d in the Lat. wd. in all probability arises from s > f withsubsequent misreading of / (o*) as 4 (u*)» which, with such a common-place root as aYb, would almost be instinctive.2 In SpAr. bb for p iscommon in twhnirql works' (cf. even SpAr. spelling of Lope as Lttbb).Because of the difficulty of the Pers. p, usrup is also found in the formusruf(c£. Suppl. s.v.). On the form %trupb see Ruska, TS 189.

Adol (ALF. ANGL. Plant. 1 16: insitio artemisie in adul silvestre). (?)Plane tree, i.e. Platanus orientalis or sycamore, i.e. Acer pseudoplatanus.[Ar. ad-duJb.]*

Ahoho (SB 9: lac acetosum de quo extractum est butirum). Buttermilk.[Ar. ad-digt f* Pers. du£&.] Cf. CanV 5)3: Adohoc, L lac acetosum dequo extractum est butyrum.. .; And. s.v. aldog (similarly defined, butwith lac acetosum qualified as coagulatum). Cf. MM no. 104.

1 On this title see Cambridg) History of Islam, n, 189 £, 19;.2 It might alao have arisen from a colloq. pronunciation tqr- for tur-.1 See Steiger, pp. 104 ff.; c£ L. P. Harvey in AUAndaltu, xxm (1958), 57.4 The loss of the final consonant may stem from pronunciation. With

certain pairs of consonants juxtaposed in the final position with no inter-vening vowel (eg. -tr, -dr, -^d) the second of the pair may be barely audibleand in colloq. even disappear.

41


Alahacab (Ps.-RIG Anat. 5: quedam [ligamcnta] sunt quibus appro-ptiatur nomen quod est akhacab). Sinews. [Ar. al-a'qab, sing, (and pr.collect) aJ-'aqab.] Cf. And. s.v. albacab: sunt ligamenta seu corde, quenascuntux ex extremitatibus ossium, etc

Alaharih (SB 10: cordeon). (?) Hartwort (based on the possibilitythat this strange Lat wd. is to be equated with cordilion (Alpb. 46) forTop&iAiov (Diosc.)). [Pass. Ar. ai-aqrifiiot as-sasdliyis aJ-iqrifi "CretanSeseli", Le. Tordylium maximum (or ? of&cinale).] As the Arabs wereacquainted with several kinds of sasdJiyus (Dubler, Diosc. 1, xlviii)"Cretan" may well have been regarded as the operative word and theAr. adj. passed into ML as alcbaritb\-(tf or the like, (Cf. IB m 113.)

Alahehi (SB 10: ceterac). Ceterach, Scale-fern. [Pr. ad. Ar. as-sarkbasadb-dbababi "golden fern", Le. Ceterach officinarum (MM no. 266),which is analogous to Sp. doradilla, common ceterach, f. Ar. adji-dbababiyya (GVK no. 197).] The Lat. wd. is apparently a corruptionof adababi (£. adb-dbababi "golden") .

Alapsa (Alpb. 4: quandoque est galla, quandoque est alluta). Oak-gallor leather tanned. [At. aJ-'aff, gallnut. Cf. Syr. 'off3.]

Alaste (SB 10: ysopus ortolanus). Thyme, pr. Garden-thyme, Le.Thymus vulgaris [Ar. al-bdsbd ult f. Akkad. baJu]. The Lat. wd. is acorruption dalbasce given in CanV j 54 zsysopus ortularms (cf. ibid. s.v.basce, 5 57: est ysopus qui nascitur in hortis). Cf. And. s.v. basce: Hasceapud Arabes est thymus super quern inheret epithymum. For Ar. wd.see IS 1, 314.

Alastogia (BRADW. CD 13 B: Pythagoras duas akstogias, systichias,coelementationes seu coordinationes.. .dicitur posuisse.. .sicut brevi-ter tangitur in 12 Metaph., 37 ubi in nona [L nova] translatione habetur"coelementatio", in translatione vero quam Averroes eônit"alastogia"). Co-ordinates. [Ar. ad. Gr. OVOTOIXICC] An analogousformation is Ar. al-ustuquss, element, fr. Gr. oroixetov.

Alaz (ALF. ANGL. Plant. 113: quedam [plante habent] spinas, utalaz). Knee holly, i.e. Ruscus aculeatus, otherwise known as Butcher'sbroom. (?) Also, holly. [Ar. aJ-ds aJ-barri "wild myrtle", Le. kneeholly (IBLc no. 70/EB130; cf. ADW 13).] The adj. - essential inAr. - has been dropped in Lat.

Albacalay (BACON nc 4: dicit [Avicenna].. .quod si 3. j dragantirubei albacalay potetur potentissime depilat canos et loco eorumfacit nigros renasci; cf. ibid. 137: dragagantum albikki [v.l. albalaki].Red vitriol of Balkh. [Ar. aJ-Balkbf adj. f. Balkh (now a small villagein N. Afghanistan).] See CanV 488V/IS m, 272. Red vitriol is anoxide of iron (LK 243 n. 546).

43.


Albaras (J. GAD. 85 v. i : morphea.. .differt ab albaras quia morpheasolum est in cute.. .sed albaras est in came et cute usque ad o s . . . ;SB 10: albaras est morfea alba ut lac). 1. Leprosy; 2. vitiligo, "whiteleprosy". [Ar. al-baras, vitiligo or (loosely) leprosy.] Cf. CanV 553:Albaras est morphea alba ut lac vel nimia cutis albificatio. The laymanshould note that leprosy, a bacillary disease, is quite different fromvitiligo, a skin condition. Depigmentation, however, occurs in bothwith resultant imprecision in terminology. Medically qualified Arabicscholars (eg. M. Meyerhof, H. P. J. Renaud) define boras as vitiligo(M-S n, 362; Hespiris xn (1931), p. 221), and the term "albaras" hassurvived into modem times, being defined as "a skin disease charac-terized by the formation of white, shining^ anaesthetic patches".1

Leprosy is al-judbam.

Albezardi {Alpb. 5: [v.l. albesardi], i. galbanum; LJC: albetud estgalbanum). Galbanum, i.e. the resin of several species of Ferula, esp.Ferula galbaniflua (MM no. 339). [Ar. a/+Pers. barâd.] AJbetudprobably stems from a Lat form such as albefadfj > t > t).

Albotim (J. GAD. 65 v. 2: terbentina; Alpb. 5: albocyn, id est tereben-tina; LJC: albotim vel albotai, albotra helcalibat, est terebinthina).Terebinth, i.e. Pistacia terebinthus. [Ar. al-bufm {ADW 20 s.v.).]Helcalibat is evidently 'ilk al-anbdf "gum of the Nabathaeans", i.e.the resin of die terebinth {ADW 5 3 s.v.; LKindi, 306).

Alcaldas, -ii (also: alcadus, escaldus (escabinus, erroneously)). Civicmagistrate. [Sp. alcalde f. Ar. al-qddJ, judge.]

Alcanna {Alpb. 182: tapsia nos inflat, sed nos alcanna colorat; TURNERHerb. B ii v: ligustrum Grece diedtur cyprus; officdnae vocant ligustrumalcannam aut henne; PP: alkenet, berbe, alcanea; WW: alcanna, A.alkenet). 1. Henna, Le. Lawsonia inermis. [QAr. al-binna* or vulgarAr. al-batvtait), henna.] 2. Alkanet, i.e. Anchusa/Alkanna tdnctoria.[Pr. vulgar Ar. al-bama(t), henna.] Alcanna in SOED s.v. is said to bean adaptation of Sp. alcana, but in the light of Gerard of Cremona'salcbanna (Corominas, s.v. alberta) and alcbanajalcanna of the med Latversion of the Calendrier de Cordoue (pp. 77, 145), this view seems to meuntenable. Even more questionable is the notion that alkanet {SOEDs.v.) is possibly Sp. alcaneta, Hirnin. of alcana, especially as it seems not

to occur in Sp. Is it not rather a transliteration of al-bama^t)1 (2l*JI

for QAr. al-piwid* »li*)l) as alcbamet, or the like? This vulgar form,which certainly existed in SpAr. in the mid-thirteenth century (Steiger,2)6), can be found in many of the modem colloquials. On bemta(benmt in the construct state) see W. Marcais and A. Guiga, Texttsarabes de Takrotina, n {Glossabre, Paris, 1958-61), ii, 960. Cf. L. Brunot,Textts arabes de Rabat, n {Glossaire, Paris, 1952), 195; fiT* m, 461.

1 Cf. G. M. Gould, Pocket Medical Dictionary (nth ed), 1945, s.v.1 See above p. 35 and n. 1.

43


(SB 10: lupinus). Lupin, csp. Lupinus ttrmig (MM no. 379;ADW 23 s.v.; LK 225). [Ar. al-tumus, pr. via SpAr. d-tarmus (GVRnos. 229, 715), whence Sp. altramus^\ For a comparable corruptionthrough mistwiding o f minims in ML see Lag. 163 s.v. Tarimu.

Alcatse (SB 10: bdellium). Bdellium (bot.) [Pr. Ar. al-kSr, blue bdellium(ADW 64, IBLc no. 1987, MM no. 230, p. 114).] The Lat wd. wouldhave had its origin in a transliteration olaJ-ktq^ jug, which is an obvioushttio facilior and in Ar. differentiated from al-k&r only by a singlediacritical point on the last letter. Cf. ka%ak for karak (ADW 86),

kb&z for marmdMbxr (LK 228), etc

(Process. Sal. 184: xl albas: harum . . . sunt . . . tres dealcassino...). Coarse silk. [Ar. aJ-^ba^f " that which is made of kha^ ",Le. properly speaking, a mixture of silk and wool pr, more loosely,silk alone (SuppL s.v., EP, s.v. barir).] In die ML translation of die Ar.CaJendrier de Cordoue kbasR *& rendered seta crossa (" vestdmenta.. .factaex seta crossa", p. 159). Cf. OGalician altba^, silk (Steiger, 228).

Alchemer (SB 10: sene). Senna. [Pr. Ar. a/-£biydrslkmbar, Cassia fistula(ADW 33: "Sennesblitter"), f. Pers. kbrfdr-i ebambar.] The Lat. wd.would correspond to the first element of this compound (aJ-kbiy3r >alebeier), which if unqualified by die second simply means "cucumber".

Alcbimia (also: alchymia, alckimia, alkomia, alkemonia, alkimia).Alchemy [Ar. al-klmiyS' f. Gk. xnôc]. Note also PP: akanamye,mctalle, alcanamia, alloy resembling gold.

Alchitram, -an (SB 9: pix; LC: oleum juniperi, pix liquida). Cedar orjuniper gum. [Ar. aJ-qifrdn, pitch, resin obtained from cedar, pine,cypress, etc. (LK 208 n. 284).]

Alchobugi (J. GAD. in v. 2: recipe fellis galli aut perdicis aut fasianiqui vocatur alchubugi a Messfue]). Partridge. [Ar. al-qabaj f. Pers.kabk.] Cf. And. s.v.: Alchabegi seu alchubugi1 sunt cotumices habentesrostra et pedes rubeos et sunt similes perdicibus in magnitudine.

Alcohol (also: alcofol, alcol) (SB 10: pulvis ad oculos; LC: antimoniumsive stibium; ibid.: alcol vini est aqua ardens rectificata). 1. Powderused as eye-salve, kohl. 2. Antimony. 3. Spirit, alcohol. [Ar. aJ-kubl,collyrium,] On the nature of kn^l and the meanings of die wd. in Ar.see Glos. 92 s.v.

Alcollum* (SB 10: alcolla, L pustule parve que fiunt in ore). Ulcers inthe mouth, thrush, ulcerative stomatitis. [Ar. al-quL? (IS n, 181/QmV 229).] Cf. alcola, And. s.v.

1 The term is correctly given by J. GAD. as sing.* Strictly (peaking, akolUum is incorrect; aholla has been thought a neater

pL44


Alcoran, -anas (also: Alchoram, -an, Alkeron). The Koran. [Ar.al-qur'dn.]

Alcotar (M. SCOT Lumen 250: deice super ipsum parum ydragorresolutum in aqua et coagula, vel parum lapidis alcotar preparati).(?) Crystallized copper sulphate. [Pr. Ar. qalqafdr, qulqufdr, qalqanfdr,vitriol, crystallized ferrous sulphate, f. Gx. yakn!xvfa\ (Suppl. s.v.qulqufdr; cf. ADW 86 s.v. qalqanfdr) or xaAKOKpfirov MM no. 140 s.v. jtfj'." Ce sont [certain sulphates] des masses cristallines noires qui se formentdans les eaux des minr« de cuivre".).] Cf. Sp. colcotar. The Lat formcan be explained by the loss of the initial letter as a result of its beingan ornamental capital or by contraction or by haplography if we assumethe original to have been a transliteration of al-qulqufdr. Haplographyis perhaps the most likely explanation.

Alcoto, -onus (also: acoto, -unus, acto, -ona, akedonus, aketo, -ona,-onus, -unus, alcato, alketho, aquitona, auketonus, -unus, hacketonus,haketo). Acton, padded jacket. [SpAr. al-qufm (see Hsspiris xvi (1933),174) for ClAr. al-qufnj-quftm, cotton.] Dozy notes the etymology (G/os.127 s.v. algxtin), but the Ar. term seems not to have had the same senseas the med. Lat wd.

Alcubd? (L/C: acubd, alumbair, est butyrum crudum; SB 9: acub, Lbutirum). Butter. [Ar. al-%ubd(a)la%-%...]

Alcnfar (SB 10: capparis). Caper (bot), i.c Capparis spinosa. [Ar.al-kabarj-kabbdr f. Gr. Kdmropis.]1 Cf. Sp. alcaparra. In Occidental Ar.palaeography medial b and/are confusibilia (see above, p. 34).

Aldea (Foed. n 210 (Lat. reps Aragm):.. .cum omnibus villis, aldeis,pechis). Village, hamlet. [Sp. aldea f. Ar. al-day'a.]

Alefeniati (J. GAD. 50. 2: Avicenna.. .vocat ibi aromatica "ale-fcniati" sicut cassialignea, costum, 9gfrflnnmJ amomum). Aromaticplants. [Ar. aJ-afivijafj) (a solecism), spices, odoriferous substances orthings (cf. ADW 15 s.v.: "Spezereien, aromatische Krauter").] Toan Arabist the solecism is understandable. The correct form is afawJb(notional sing. [fSb]), on which see W. Schmucker, Materia Medita(Bonn, 1969), no. 53. In ML there are variants. See CanV 553V:AJfegin dicuntur omnes species boni sapons que cibariis admiscenturut piper et zinziber. Alefeniati idem. Cf. ibid. J42V: Trocisci alfengmaticorresponding to Ar. aqrdf al-afawJb (IS m, 436); And. s.v. akfimati:idest in qua decocta sunt plurima aromata. Doz/s conjecture that

OSp. alefangnas is " . . .peut-fitre.. .une alteration de fsj^Vl (al-efJbvib), qui en arabe signifift aromates" (Glos. 98) is demonstrablycorrect

1 See Htspfris xn (1931), 1 j and n. 4.

45


Alembicum (also: alambicam). Alembic (upper part of vessel used fordistillery). [Ar. aJ-anbiq f. Gr. &tipi£.]

Alembrottnm (also: albcry, albri, alebrodium, alebrot, alembroth,alibrot, allebrot) (M. SCOT. Lumen 248: iste [sal agrum] a quibusdamphilosopbis alibrot appellatur; LC: alembroth est sal mercurii vel salphilosophorum). Chloride of mercury and ammonium. [Poss. Ar.d-^Tbaq, corrosive sublimate, mercuric chloride (Lag. 164 s.w. ycdbatb,%aibar).] The mining supplied by Lag. presumably stems eitherfrom Z' naqtiU "killed mercury" or turab al-%. "dust of mercury"(Suppl. s.v. sfbaq; Avicenna speaks of mercury being "subdued" inKitdb al-sbiftf: The Latin and Arabic Texts, ed. E. J. Holmyard andD. C. Mandeville (Paris, 1927), pp. 38 and n. 2, 84).

My suggestion must seem, at first sight, improbable, but we haveperhaps a complex error of which the starting-point is %Tbaq vulgartfbaq > qrnbaq (see Suppl. s.v.) > âmbaq. The process in Lat wouldthen develop somewhat as follows: alcemboc > aJcbembocj-t > albem-bocj-t > albembrocf-t > allembrot. The process is not without parallel:see Lag., 159 where we have bebel for %tbl (I suggest Ar. sjbl > Lat.ftbel > cbebel > bebel).1 The possibility that ahmbntb may be con-nected with aJ-bdrHdJaJ-milb ai-bariit (Ruska, TS 217) seems a littleremote since there appears to be nowhere any evidence to connectthese terms with chloride of mercury, etc On the meanings of bSrHd seeEP s.v.

Aletafur (ALF. ANGL. Plant, n 15: quod guttatim manat remanetin forma sua et erit ut arbor que dicitur aletafur). (?) Camphor tree.[Ar. al-k3fHr f. Malay JkJpOr ult. f. Sanscrit karpura.] In OSp. edforaoccurs f.ijoo (Corominas s.v. akanfor).

Alfkgi (SB 10: agnus castus). Chaste-tree, Agnus castus. [Ar. al-faqdj-faqad, Vitex agnus castus.] Cf. CanV j j6v: Fag. i. agnus castus; And.s.v. Gratia alfagd: [G. alf.] sunt semina agni casti.. .The loss of thefinal d in SB and the Lat. of And. suggests that our Lat. wd. derivesfrom the form al-faqd rather than al-faqad, and grana aljagdi in CanV297V tends to confirm this view. The final / is to be explained eitherby misreading of a definition such as that given in CanV or by the tactthat ff (usually for EngL jjAi.jtm) is a commoner termination than g.

Alfarrangi (SB 10: speragus). Asparagus. [Ar. aJ-isfdranj, on whichsee Suppl. s.v. isfSraj ult f. Gr. dtrmipayos.] The Lat. wd. may reflecta colloq. Ar. pronunciation (? sferanj).

Alfefe (SB 10: egritudo lingue). Stammer, stutter. [Ar. aJ-fa'fa'.] Cf.CanV 553V: Alfese [sic] vel alteten sunt egntudines lingue quandoaliquis non potest proferre nisi se se vel te ten. See also IS n, 177.

1 Dubler believes it to be merely a misprint. For cbtbel > b*b*l cf. aUbama> Sp. albeMa.

46


Alferiz. Standard-bearer. [OSp. atfere^ f. Ar. d-fSris "cavalryman".]'On this wd., which occurs in Portuguese in 1112, see Corominas, s.v.:" . . . sc explica porque en la caballerfa era costumbre confiar el estan-darte real al jinete mas diestro o valiente..."

Alfintu (also: alficus, alphicus, alphinus). Alfin, bishop (chess). [Ar.al-fil (pr. through Sp. dpi) uk. f. Pers. pfl, "elephant'*, which formthis piece had in the East.] In SpAr. and Maghribl dialects / and ttwere, and still are, often interchangeable (see Glos. 21).

Algarab (J. GAD. 114.1: Valet ad ulcera oculorum et ad algarab, i.ad fistulam ibidem). Lachrymal abscess and fistula. [Ar. d-gbar(a)b.]The etymology is proved by reference to sources, viz. CanV J37V/IS in, 420. Cf. And. s.v.: Algarabe est.. .fistula lachrimalis in angulo

oculi.

Algare (RGasc n 445: 1289 cum.. .landis, nemonbus, algaribus, aquiset pascuis). (?) Cave, hollow. [Pr. Sp. algar f. Ar. aJ-gbdr, cave, cavemihollow, lowland.]

AlgasaHtu (Dip. Corr. Ric. H no. 209: 1394 [scribitur] alcadis et alga-suUis civitatis Ispalensis). Magistrate. [OSp. algiunpl, agtacil (Steiger,293), governor of a locality having authority over the administrationof civil and criminal law (Corominas, s.v. dfftaeH) f. Ar. d-wa^r (seefollowing remarks).] Wasgr is the Ar. wd. from which vhyer derives.In the Muslim East the viaerate was a high office. In Muslim Spain,however, the term vasgr did not necessarily denote a high-rankingofficial. From about the eleventh century the governor of a town ordistrict was so styled, and between the thirteenth and fourteenthcenturies the sense in Sp. is that of "judge in a court of the first instance"(Glos. 129 f. where the question is discussed in some detail).

Algebra (SB 10: restauracio camis; CatbA: a restoratyve). Restoration(of anything missing, lost, out of place, wanting), restorative. [Ar.d-jabr.] Cf. And. s.v. dgiebar: Algiebar id est restaurationis [sic]. TheAr. wd. is more familiar in its mathematical sense, Le. the theory ofequations, in which the idea is that of "restoring" or "filling up" aquantity that is larking. From the notion "restoring" someone orsomething to a former condition is derived the sense "bone-setting".On the various senses of the vb. see Suppl. s.v.jbr.

Algorismos (also: alchorismus, algarismus, algSrismus, augorismus).Augrim, Arabic [decimal] notation. [Ar.-Pers. hybridd-Klrdrryiti. "ofKh^Srazm (modem Khiva)", adj. denoting place of origin (tdsba) ofthe mathematician Muhammad b. Musi (d. c. A.D. 863).] In most EngL

1 There is no satisfactory equivalent for firis in Knglinh. The nearestwould be "knight" - a term which I avoid because of its connotations.

47


dictionaries this msba is transliterated al-Kiuvarhynf.1 aJ-KJxwara^mi,etc, thus leaving the impression that a first syllable has disappearedfrom the T^t wd. In Pers., however, initial kbw is pronounced kh.

for Klfara^m reflects an Ar. morphological influence.

Alhel (SB 10: fructus juniperi). Savin, dried tops of the shrub Juni-perus sabina. [Ar. abbul(MM no. 22; M-S no. 5, LK 208), abbal(ADW11).] Cf. GwKs .w. abhtl, albtbel.

XXU\AuA* (also: *W\AnA*M hallidada). Alidad(e), sighting-index [Ar.ai-<i4dda, direction (of a road), jamb (of a door), flat "ruler" turningon the pivot of an astrolabe (Suppl. s.v.)]. Cf. Corominas s.v. alidada(dating OSp. aBndada to 1256-76). See also El* s.v. as fur lab.

Alhigera (also: Aljigera). Hijra, Hegira, i.e. the Muslim era (datingfrom the emigration of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to MedinaA.D. 622. [Ar. aJ-bijra, emigration (connoting the severance of kinshipties, etc See El* s.v. biajra).]

Alkali (also: alchaloi, alkal, alkali).2 Alkali. [Vulgar Ar. al-qaU(OAr.al-qaly\-qilj\ calcined ashes of Salsola kali and other kinds of plantproducing caustic potash (see ADW 14 s.v. ushndn).] The informationin SOED s.v. alkali, viz. "aLqaliy f. qaiay", is misleading in that (a)aJ-qaRj suggests ifa't/ form, whereas the attested literary forms arefa*I, yf/and fi'al (aJ-qi/J), and (b) qaiay is neither the vb. (gaJd, to fry,bake) nor its root qly. And. s.v. alkali supplies a detailed definition,part of which is worth quoting:.. .pars cdneris istius herbe [usnenvel asnen (usbndn)] combuste, que.. .est residentia reliquarum partiumrinp.tis predicti est verum qllrnii, et relique vero partes improprie apudvulgares appellantor ailraii et Itali appellant huiusmodi cinerem alume

ex. quo cinere fiunt vasa vitrea, et sapones.

gi (also: alcakenge, alkakengi) (SB 10: species soktri). Wintercherry, ie . Physalis alkekengL [Ar. <x/+Pers. kdkanj.] See MM no. 201.

Alkibrit(also: albubit, alcabrick, algibich, alkibric, allzebric). Sulphur.[Ar. aUkabrit. Cf. Hebr. g>pbritb\

Allden (DASTYN, Rat. 7: alkien terra, id est quedam generacio secretain terra; et est sicut alkien in homine...). Natural process, activenature, natural power. [Ar. al-ktydn £. Syr. kfydn. Sec Suppl. s.v.]

Alldffil (SB 10: ros marinus). Rosemary. [Ar. al-ikUl al-jabaU (M-Spp. 107 f.), more commonly ikJJlaJ-jabaJ" crown of the mountain", Le.Rosmarinus officinalis. Cf. OSp. aJecrim f. al-iklil, rosemary (Glos. 97).]In the Lat wd. //would seem to have been misread asss, thcnsszsff.

1 Correctly according to strict transliteration from Ar.1 In alkydi we have misreading of k as / j . See also below aU^tbrie s.v.

alhbrit.

48


Aflehbat (S. SIM. I tin. 30: primum ingtcssis vescendum proponiturjccur pisds allehbut, dbus ultra quam mirari possis delectabilis). (?)The roe of a r»»rftiin kind of fish specially treated and highly prized as adelicacy. [Pr. Ar. lubb al-bit "choice part of the fish".] My colleague,Dr M. A. A. El Kafrawy, to whom I am indebted for assistance onthis point, informs ™ that in this expression and in the context1

al-bitt connotes a particular species of fish which he is, however, notcompetent to identify. He nevertheless assures me that in Egypt eventoday its roe is as highly prized and expensive as caviare in the West,but much more delectable.

ADileti (BACON v 10: halo sive allilet qui est circulus coloratus circasolem et lunam et Stellas). Nimbus, halo. [Pr. Ar. al-bdla(t) ad. Gr.fiXcoj.] The original ML form was probably albikt,poss. f. SpAr.

AHotay (GELB. vn 341 v. z: sale armo[niaco]). Sal ammoniac [Ar.al-uqdb "eagle": Sttppl. s.v.: Les alchimistes donnaient le nom decet oiscau au stl ammoniac, "propter levitatem in sublimationibus";cf. Lat. aqtdla, sal ammoniac (MLW s.v.).] The original form of theLat. wd. was probably albocau, the last letter no doubt representing alabiodental pronunciation of b (see below Akcderag and cf. waqtakora< [t/a%taUora] < basf al-htra found in Sp. ML MSS in EP 1, 721 s.v.asfurldb). An alternative Lat. adaptation of cd-'uqdb is alotop (Ruska,

Almacenut ( P J . - R I G Aiut. 26: quorum [musculorum] unus movetoculum sursum, alius deorsum, alii ad duos almacenos...). Comer ofthe eye, canthus. [Ar. aJ-ma'qdttf-ayn (nom. and oblique dual of al-ma'q).]Cf. And. s.v.: Almachein idest anguli larhritTmics oculorum et deriva-tum est ab almach quod interpretatur angulus lachrimalis oculi;CanV j 54: almfikcni L duo anguli oculorum.

Abnagesti (also: Almajesti, Almogesta) (R, BURY, Pin/. 1. 21: testePtolomeo in prologo Almagesti). Ptolemy's Almagest. [Ar. al-majisti f.Gr.

Almagra (ROB. ANGL. Alch. 518b: almagra quoque est laton, licetsuperius cam esse terram rubeam diceremus; L/C: est bolum, cuprum,lato net lapis ipse, vel terra rubea, lotum vel lotio). Red earth, red clay,red ochre and (?) bronze. [Ar. aJ-magbraj-fnugbra, on which see Suppl.s.v. and ADW 88.] "Bronze" does not seem to have been one of themeanings of the Ar. wd., but ADW records the sense "red and yellow"from which the Lat could conceivably have developed.

Almagrip ((WALCHER MALVERN. Tab. Ltm.) EHR xxx 5 7: [speak-ing of an astrolabe].. .primam partem Tauri eidem altitudini super-posui in parts almagrip). West point on an astrolabe. [Ar. al-magbrib,west.]

1 It is a question of foods served in Paradise.

4 49


Aitimlwr (SB: litargirium). Lead oxide. [Poss. At. aJ-martak (ADW 88)f. Pas . mttrda-satg(murda < Pahkvi mxrdaA), dross of lead, litharge, orAt. al-marddr for Pen. murdSr-sang (> Ar. mttrddsattj) with the samemeaning. If the first of the two possibilities is correct, the originalform of almabar may have been almadac.

Almanac, -ch Almanar. [SpAr. al-mandkb, almanac] On the uncer-tainty surrounding the ultimate origin of this trrm see Corominass.v. almanaque. Cf. Glos. 154.

(JJC: almarra»iMat argyritis cst lithargyrium argcQtd).gy g gPyrites with silver lustre. [Ar. d^marqastitd\-ta\-^d, "marcasitepyrites. Cf. Pers. marqasbisba, Syr. makkaiita (Suppl. s.v.), Akkad.marfraJi.] Cf. OSp. marcaxita (Glos. 301). In Ar. writings "marcasites"or pyrites are said to be of gold, silver, copper or iron. Hence theNED'S observation: "The 'marcasites' of gold and silver were app.specimens of copper and iron pyrites with the lustre of gold and silver"(SOED s.v. marcasite). Cf. IB rv, 152: "In lustre, each kind [ofmarcasite] resembles the mineral from which it takes its name."

Almizadar (LJCI aimi qrlar^ almisadar, amigaHir . .cst sal armoniacuspraeparatus). Sal ammoniac [Ar. al-nHsbsSr\-ituib3dir\-nilskddir (ADW89), pr. f. Pers., but etymology uncertain.]

Almncabola (ROB. ANGL. Alg. 66: liber algebre et almucabola).Almachabel, equation. [Ar. al-muqdbala "confrontation" of onequantity with another to examine differences or likenesses or "com-parison" of positive and negative terms in a compound quantity.]See EP art. "al-Djabr wa 'l-mukdbala".

Almuc(h)antaradi (also: almucanterath, almicanterath). Almacantars,circles of the sphere parallel to the horkon (astron.). [Ar. al-muqan-fardt.] The Ar. wd. is a verbal adj. used in the fern. pL as a substantiveto avoid the more cumbersome aUdawS'ir al-muqtmpara (sing, al-dd'ira al-muq (see El* s.v. asptrldb) "circle presenting the form of abridge, arch (ganfara)".1

Almuharran Name of the first month of the Muslim year. [Ar.aJ-muparram.]

Almori (also: almeri). Almury, pointer on astrolabe and similarinstruments. [Ar. al-mur'i (vulgar Ar. aL/imrf), "that which shows",indicator.] Surprisingly, the etymology is not given in SOED s.v.almury.

1 These Hrr1i»« -when viewed as bisected by the plane of the observer'smeridian would present the appearance of semicircular loops rrmininr^t ofbridges. I am indebted to Mr W. C Brice for assistance on this point.

5°


Almortaldm (D. MORLEY 3 5: quorum [circulorum] primus Arabicei k i L d i i l i did l k i b

( 3 5 q [ ] p^ Latdne equinoccialis nuncupatur...dicdtur almustakim ab

Arabibus, id est rectus...). Equinoctial circle. [Ar. al-mustaqfm,straight, that which is straight, rectilinear.]

Almnthemen (also: almuhen, almute, almuthemon) (ROB. ANGL. Alg.120, 2411.: Tertius almuthemen, id est ignotus). Total amount to beexpended (in commercial transactions). [Ar. al-mutbamman, "that of•which the total cost is to be determined"; see s.v. altbemen.] My pointingand definition of the Ar. wd. conflict with those given by M. Souissi,La langue des matbimatiquts (Tunis U.P., 1968), no. 178: "mutman:denree dont on donne le prix". Souissi does, however, correctly givethe meaning of tbaman as "prix total" (no. 177) and it is difficult tounderstand why the context docs not make the sense dear to him.Equally, the pointing can be deduced from the word with which it ispaired, vis. al-musa"ar (see below s.v. alrmcâbar). He possibly discardsal-mutbamman because this is the normal word for octagon in Ar. Onthe whole mathematical problem I concur with Karpinski in his noteto ROB. ANGL. Alg. 121 n. 4 (though his Arabic transliterations arenot all correct). The fact that the total cost is the item to be determinedis clear from the fact that it is "ignotus" (Ar. majbul, not rnaqtU as inKarpinski's note; cf. Ar. text in The Algebra of Mohammed ben Musa,ed. F. Rosen (London, 1831), 48 f.).

Almozahar (also: almusarar, almnMa^ almnwa^ almuzarar) (ROB.ANGL. Alg. 120, 22 n.: Horum.. .numerorum primus juxta Arabes,Almuzahar, qui et primus propositus nominator). Commodity of whichthe price per unit is fixed (in commercial transactions) (cf. Souissi,op. cat. (s.v. almutbemtn), no. 809), unit of measure (Karpinski in ROB.ANGL. Alg. i z i n . 4). [Ar. al~musa"ar "that of which the price perunit is fixed or to be fixed"; see s.v. alsârar.]

Alphachintu (Expug. Terrae Sanctae 16b: alphachini et ragging ministriscilicet nefandi erroris episcopi et presbyteri secundum opinionemSaracenorum; cf. ibid. i jb) . Alfaqui, one versed in Islamic jurispru-dence. [Ar. al-faqib.]1

Alphesora (Alpb. 5: amphelion, prassion, vitis albe, brionia idem,G. navet, A. wildnep; SB 9: alfefur, i. radix vitis albe). White bryony,root of white bryony, wild turnip. [Ar. al-fishird, white bryony, Le.Bryonia alba, f. Syr. (MM no. 312).] Cf. And. s.v.: Alfesera, idestvitis alba; CanV 553 V: Alfesire idest radix vitis albe. The latter defini-tion is understandable; it was the root of the plant that was mostcommonly used in medieval Muslim pharmacy (see M. Shah, GeneralPrinciples of Avieenna's Canon (Karachi, 1966), p. 430). According to

1 The mated b in-Jb has obviously given rise to the notion that this wd.is in the -7 > -inns cks» (see p. 39). Note also [aJ]casspti (sing, -us) < al-qdfi(the // representing a\ 3; or 4 ""'""•°^ as /).

JI 4-a


Siggd,fdsbird was Bryonia dioica (ADW 5 j), but this meaning wouldappear to be exceptional.

Alszarar (also: alasfe^ o1s»a'»irJ alzazar) (ROB. ANGL. Alg. 120, 23 n.:Alter [numerus], id est secundus. per primum dinotus appellatur).Price per unit (in commercial transactions). [Ar. al-sTr "price" perunit] The etymology of this very distorted wd. is certain since we havethe corresponding Ar. in al-KbTarizml, The Algebra of Mohammed betsMusa, ed. F. Rosen (London, 1831), p. 48 (text). For confirmation ofthe meaning see M. Souissi, op. cit (s.v. almutbemen), no. 803: "prix(fixe"), surtout prix unitaire.. .Le prix total est dit Toman".

Altataxacon (J. GAD. 73 v. 1: rostrum porcinum vel cicorea; ibid.71.1: r. pore vel endivia silvestris quod idem est; Alph. 155: r. pore. . .A. sowetbistel.. .vocatur ataraxacon secundum Gaddesden). Chic-ory, sowthistlc or similar plants. [Ar. al-tarakbsbaqibt for -Hq, dandelion,wild chicory, f. Pers. talkb-tbakik "bitter purslane".] In Ar. there aredifferent forms and spellings, e.g. falaqsbaquqj-un, etc (Suppl. and MMno. 175). Cf. And. s.v.: Altaraxacon est endivia silvestris; CanV 554V:L troxumia agrestis. As in med. Lat., the name seems to have beenborne by several different plants, especially that called bindibd* (ADW50, 72), chicory, endive. For details see M-S no. 263 (1, iv, 544 ff.).

Altersandarei (SB 10: virga pastoris). Knot-grass, i.c Polygonumaviculare, or (?) teasel (bot) [Ar. <*/-+Pers. barstyanddrH, Polygonumaviculare, which the Arabs termed 'asd al-rS'l"staff of the shepherd".]On the various synonyms see ADW 20 s.v. bafbdf. The original Lat,was pr. aJbersiandaru. Because the literal Lat trans, of the Ar. term forknot-grass is virga pastoris, it is tempting to assign to the latter the samemining as it had in Europe, viz. teasel (Dipsacus fullonum). (Cf.Eng. "shepherd's rod, staff" (Dipsacus pilosus).) However, in CanVi6ov virg.past. translates the Ar. tas3al-raiiQS> 1, 395 f.).1 The confusioninto which European scholars have been thrown is reflected in thedifferent opinions quoted by P. Guigues in Scrap, pp. 491 f.

Alteterera (SB 10: armoniacum). Horehound, i.e. Marrubium vulgare(see SB 11 s.v. armoniacum; cf. MLW 574). [(?) Ar. al-sbinar\-Acmnar\-stumor (MM no. 235; ADW 47), horehound.] Appearances suggestthat the Lat wd. may well be of Sp. provenance. If we suppose theprocess of corruption to have begun, as is quite possible, with thereading of the single letter sb as two, or even three, separate letters,viz. nt(y) or tn(j),x Occidental Ar. palaeography may reasonably be

1 In thia wA we have a very good example of one of the ways in whichEuropean scholars could confuse two entirely different botanical species.

1 In certain circumstances some scribes would place the three diacriticalpoints of\f£, not triangularly above the letter as is usual, but along it horizon-tally, and the two points of t vertically above the letter instead of horizon-tally. I myself have sometime* been misled by this practice in Ar. MSS.

5*


postulated as the source of the next error, which would consist in themisreading of n as q. If the hypothesis is correct, the history of the Lat.wd. may be presented somewhat as follows: altttertra < alteteter{a) <alcattcar(a) < aJ-q.t.ifay.qSr < al-n .t .j{j\ay) .nar < al-sb.ndr.

Althemen (also: alchemon, altemon, althemon) (ROB. ANGL. Alg.izo, 24 n.: Quartus [numerus] althemen, id est per primum ct secun-dum dinotus). Total amount to be expended (in commercial trans-actions). [Ar. al-tbaman, total "cost".] See Souissi, op. cit. (s.v.almutbemtii), nos. 177, 803.

Alndel (also: aludellum, alutel). Aludel, vessel used for sublimation(alch.). [Ar. ai-utbdJ.]

Alvederagi (Alpb. 6: L basiliconis vel columbine secundum Gaddes-den Q. GAD. 9.1]). Basil, columbine. [Ar. aJ-badbariij f. Pers. bddruj,sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum) and its varieties (M-S no. 144 in rr,307 ft)]

Amalgama(IX7: impastatio.. .metalli. . .cumargento vivo). Amalgam(alch.) [Ar. al-tttulgbam "that which has been mixed with mercury",vbL adj. (of denominative vb. f. Gr. ii&Accypct inn. by Ar. root Igb m ?).]

Ambra,-am. 1. Ambergris; 2. storax(EHR LXVH 173: 1307 pro unoemplastro pro collo regis cum ladano et ambra orientali), Le. Liquidam-bar orientaHs; 3. amber. [Ar. 'tmbar, ambergris, amber and, qualified,'an. sd'il "fluid amber", Le. gum-resin obtained from species of Styrax.See Suppl. s.v. 'anbar.] On "apothecaries' ambergris" used in a prepara-tion eflfective for a sore throat see LKindi, 307 (but read af-faydaJ&tJfor Levey's erroneous af-fandalanf).1

Ambrachion (ALF. ANGL. Plant. 1, 12: plantarum quedam suntarbores, quedam inter arbores et herbas, nominanturque ille ambra-chion ; BACON xv 218: olus et ambrathion que sunt media inter arboremct herbas). (?) Hypericum. [Poss. Ar. abariqm (> abraqipm) f. Gr.CnTEpuciv or Ar. bamra(t)(> bambra(t)), hypericum (Suppl. s.v.).] Thereare several more common Ar. adaptations of irmp\Kiv, viz. bif&iqim,bayafSrJqim, biyiifdrfqiln, efMqSn (Dubler, Diosc. 1, 93). The Ar. n.bamra(t) presumably derives from the root bmr, normally connotingredness. In SpAr. the phenomenon mrfml > ntbrfmbl was not unusual(Glos. 23; cf. Alhambra < al-bamrdr).

Amigdalm. TonsiL [Caique of sing, of Ar. aMaw?atan (dual), thetonsils f. lau>z "almonds" (colL).]

Anacoccos (Alpb. 10: anacochi, L bacce laurQ. Laurel berry. [(?) Ar.atb-tbdrfqa, Laurel, Le. Laurus nobilis.] Without diacritical points this

1 This is an excellent example of a diacritical point incorrectly suppliedby a modem reader faced with a consonantal ductus devoid of diacritics.

53


rather uncommon word (see Suppl. s.v.) could easily be misread asan-nfr.quqa(> anarcocca > atuuoccus, infl. by cocais).

Anagodan (also: anogodan, antigodam) (GILB. v 225 v. 1: sumac;Alph. 10: sumach). Sumach (bot). [Ar. f. Pers. anguddn, the Utwes ofFerula asafoetida (as opposed to the root or gum, for which there aredifferent names).] Unless the wd. anguddn had a local meaning differentfrom that in general use, it would appear that our informants haveconfounded the leaves of one plant with another.

Andena (BACON, Mia. 383: tertium [genus ferri] est quod vocaturnndeng, cuius rarior est usus apud Latinos; UC:... est calybs ex regioni-bus orientalibus advecta). High-grade steeL [Ar. adj. bunduwanl "per-taining to Indian (swords, etc)", i.e. the best] The original form of theT-at wd. was probably andotn (or andeon (> ML andeo)).1 In Sp.hunduwan had the meaning "sword" {Suppl. s.v.). The "Indian" bladein the sense of the "best" is a very familiar convention even in Ar.poetry. See Doz/s article on OSp. alindt, albinde, alfindt (Glos.142 f.)

Andra [? cf. antora] (SB 10: bishopeswort). (?) Betony, i.e. Stachysbetonica. [Poss. SpAr. f. Romance al-qarra, stachys (GVR no. 704;cf. Suppl. s.v.).] My suggestion is: andra < antora < ancara < Ar.anqSra resulting from misreading of a short / as n in al-qarra.

Antale (SB 11: lapis quidam; cf. AJpb. 11). A kind of stone (or (?)shell). [Poss. Ar. al-falq, talc.] I suggest antale < antale with same Ijnerror as in preceding entry.

Araseth (SB 11: nasturtium; AJpb. 5: alrafed.. .est narstucium).Cress, water-cress. [Ar. ar-fal-rasbdd, cress (Lepidium sativum), also(loosely) water-cress (Nasturtium officinale). Serap. no. 403.] Cf. And.:Alrased seu alrasad idest nasturtium quod arabice diedtur etiam g1hgi*f[aJ-burf].

Argelzarus (Alpb. 16: viride es idem). Verdigris. [Ar. al-jitt%3r (QAr.al-spnjSr), verdigris (ADW 79; Suppl. s.v. jimyir) f. Pers. %antfr).'\For scientific details see Serap. no. 539.

Ariibot (J. GAD. 124 v. 1: in tali tempore incipit arisbot, i. poms,generari et in^nrari secundum Avicennam). Osseous growth at thejunction of a bone fracture. [Ar. ad-dasbbadb, callus, f. Pers. dusbbil\dusbpil. See IS m, 20j, where the subject is dealt with, and CmV465V, where the wd. in question is rendered alnsbotb. Cf. And.:Aldesbod seu aldesket.. .nominator a larinis rosbot] Dozy (Suppl.s.v. dasbbadb) has misunderstood the Arabic gloss on which his defini-tion is based. His etymology (Pers. dasbbad) also seems unsound despite

' C£ MLWB.V. andena.

54


Steingass's dusbbud "an ill-shaped and crooked bone".1 The most likelyexplanation of die process miming ting in die Lat. wd. is as follows.An Arab scribe unfamiliar widi Pers. first misread die final consonantIdm asdd/ot dbdJ. At die same timr, or perhaps subsequently, me wordwas incorrectly vocalized. A later scribe, confronted with an unusualword, misread die initial ddl as rd', thus producing die consonantalductus r.sb.b.dj^b, whence die Lat. forms. Cf. And. s.v. alebefsir:rasbot idest caro callosa; CattV 5J4v: Alrosbodi i. porus qui postossis fracturam creatur.

Arraizm Foed. vn 521 (DipDot E 309): 1586 inveniet.. .x galeas...regis Portugalie sumptibus.. .bene armatas, viz. de uno patrono,tribus alcaldibus, sex arraizis). Naval officer [Port arrtds or Sp.SpAr. arrae% f. ar-rd'is, captain of a vessel, owner of a ship,admiral (G/os. 199; Suppl. s.v. rd*is).]

Arrianus (BACON vm 65: [Haly] dicitquod potest sumi.. .cum 303vini arriani; et Avicenna dicit "cum vino rubeo"; sed vinum nrrignnmest rubeum; alii dixerunt quod vinum girignnm est vinum forte). Pureand of exquisite fragrance (a wine). [Ar. ar-ribdtd (OAr. -rcybdm), adj.applied to a special wine of great purity and fine bouquet {Suppl. s.v.;Glos. 331. Cf. IS, n , 170 (asb-sbardb ar-raybdnt)JCattV 225V {vinumodoriftrum).] The n. from which die adj. derives means "basil" or"myrtle" (according to area) or, more loosely, any odoriferous plant.

Asa (GILB. vn 293 v. 1: galbano, serapino, asafe[tida]; ibid. 0119 galbani,ase, serapini). Gum mastic, asafoetida. [Allegedly Pers. a^d, but itappears to be known only to European authorities (see A. A. Dehkhoda,iM^batndmab (Teheran, A.H. 1325), 80). According to J. A. Vullers(Lexicon Persito-Latimmt, 2 vols., Bonn, 185 5-64) s.v., it is synonymouswith drab. Since die Ar. letters z a n d r are confusibilia, a%d and ctrdbcould well be die same word, but which of the two, if eidier, is correctI cannot yet say.

A«ti«t«- ( P J . - R I C Anat. 27: . . .asaniat auris, id est foramen). Externalauditory meatus. [Ar. af-fimdkbj-simdkb.] In the Lat. m has been mis-read as id, and t as /. Cf. CanV 554V: Alsamach est foramen auris;And.: Alsamach seu alsemach... See IS n, 149.

Asaphatam(J. GAD. 130 v. 2: [tinea] dicitur. ..aMesueasafati;J!5ii:rubor et pustule que apparent in fade juxta nasum; LC: serpigo velimpetigo aut intercutanea scabies in poris generata). Tinea, psoriasisand other skin eruptions. [Ar. as-sa'fa(t),* namr of various skin diseasesabout the head and face, notably tinea and psoriasis.] Cf. CanV 559:

1 Ptrsiat-E/fgtisb Dictionary (3rd impression, London, 1947). Stdngasa isnot a reliable authority, and it is very likely that die Ar. corruption of Pen.has returned to Pets, in its corrupt form.

1 See above p. 3; and n. 1.

55


Sahafar sunt macule rubee que fiunt cum pustulis parvis; ibid. 5 59V:Sahafati, i. bothor humida que emittit virus; ibid. 494: De sahafati.

Asar (AJpb. 15: virga pastoris). Knot-grass, (?) teaseL [SpAr. 'asd(f)for 'asd al-rd*?, knot-grass {Suppl. s.v.).] Asar could conceivably be asuspended form of asaragi (CanV $ J4v: id est virga pastoris) which isitself an obvious contraction of basialrabagi, i.e. 'asd al-rtfi (Lag.155 s.v. BasiaJrabagf). On the confusion over the mining of virgapastoris see above s.v. altersandarei.

Aseb, asep (SB 4: asep, i. alumen; LJC, aseb, asep, est alumen). Alum.[Ar. asb-sbabb.] Cf. ROB. ANGL. Akb. 514b: assos Arabice alumeninterpretatur Latine. Assos must be corrupt.

tins (also: Accinus, Arsatida, Ascisinus, Asisinus, Assisinus,Axasessus, Hassasisus, Hausassinus). 1. Assassin, follower of the "OldMan (Shaykh) of die Mountain"; 2. assassin, murderer. [Ar. Hasbtsbi,colloq. pL basbisbgiyin,1 a user of Indian hemp.] The view that theterm derives from basbsbdsbin (cf. SOED s.v. assassin) is untenable(sec EP m, 268) as is. also the legend associating the Assassins withthe use of hashish. Their name seems to be local to Syria where it waspossibly a term of contempt for the Tsmailis implying criticism of theirbehaviour (ibid.).

Assos See aseb.

Assab (BACON Ma/', n 102: impressiones, ingeminate in aere exvaporibus ignitis in similitudinem stellarum, que vocantur Arabiceassub ascendens et descendens sunt corpora parve quantitatis; PP:sttrre slymi). 1. Falling star(s); 2. star-slough, nostoc [Ar. asb-sbubub(pi. of sbibdb), falling stars, bright meteors.] Cf. CanV 559: Suhub. i.radius qui est ut ignis fians in aere (sit).

Astir (SB 11: crocus orientalis). Safflower, Le. Carthamus tinctorius.[SpAr. ? 'asfUr (ClAr. 'uffitr).] That 'asfur was SpAr., or at least aSpAr. form, is suggested by (a) a v.l. in H. P. J. Renaud, Le CalendriertPIbn al-Bamta* de Marrakeeb (Paris, 1948), p. 57 n. 2, and (b) the Sp.ala^pr. Cf. CanV 553: Afur vel assur idest crocus ortensis; ibid.554 V.

Atharafe (ALP. ANGL. Plant. 113: plantarum.. .quedam in humidoloco et quedam in arido et quedam vivunt in utroque ut salix et athara-£1). Tamarisk. [Ar. af-farfi', af-farfa (ADW 50).]

Attrenom (AJpb. 17: artrenum vel atrena [v.L athenum vel attrana]vas alembico valde simile; BACON rx 157: ponitur in fatuum velfegem, que sunt vasa distillationis in operibus alkimie). Vessel stronglyresembling an alembic [Poss. SpAr. al-qaffSra "distiller" (n. instru-

1 An alternative pL form is

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menti), alembic, vessel for distillation {Suppl. s.v.).] Simple metathesiscould produce af-farrdqa, hammer - a familiar word (cf. OSp. atarraga,Steiger, 149, 214; Glas. 212 f.). Since n and q are palaeographicamfusibilia in the Muslim West, the corruption af-farrdna (Lat attrana,etc) raises no problem. My suggestion, however, is purely speculative.

Attria ( P J . - G R O S . 626: marcasita, cujus tot sunt species quot metalla,et ab illis denominantur: attria, electrum, tuchia...). Iron or copperpyrites. Kifhw from (a) Ar. al-badid, iron, grossly corrupted and/ormisread in the original (Ib being seen as k, the first das r, die final dasb for fern, morpheme minus diacritics, thus giving rise to okriya >atbria > attria) or (b) ~Lat.ferrea or trea. See CanV 134 v: [marchasita]alia.. .aurea & alia argentea; & ali/0 erea: & ah/a terrea.1 In IS I 366erea and terrea correspond to nubdrf, copper (adj.) and badidi, iron (adj.)respectively.

Aux, angis (GROS. 22: punctus [in circulo solis] maîmr elevatus aterra vocatur aux; SACROB. Spb. 113: punctus in eccentrico quimiTimf. acccdit ad firmamentum appellatur aux sive augis.. .). Acme,apogee. [Ar. auj, highest point, peak, acme, apogee.] Cf. Eng. eatgt{SOED s.v.).

Azabar (Ps.-GROS. 552: effigies scorpionis terreslris in ascensuScorpionis celestis lapidis azabar, qui et de genere onycharum videtur,insculptus contra venenum scorpii terrestris teste Haly valere probatur,sicut et herba que eodem nomine censetur juxta Avicennam contrahujusmodi venenum valet). 1. (?) Chrysoprase, beryl, or other stone ofa similar nature and/or hue. [Ar. a%-%abarjadi. Pers. Cf. Gr. opdpocySos.]The disappearance of -jad may have resulted either from faulty readingof the Ar. or from suspension in Lat. 2. (?) Aristolochia, esp. A. longa.[Ar. a^-ârSwand £. Pers.] This wd. may, being of Pers. provenance,have been written a^-ârdband or have been confused with %armbddwhich occurs in close proximity to it in the passage in which Avicennastrongly recommends ârawand for scorpion stings (IS 1, 512/GwrK92V). It needs no great imagination to understand, firstly, how aEuropean could confound all die above-mentioned words and, second-ly, how a suspension a\arab could be confused with asâbar. Onârawand see ADW 39 s.v. and s.v. âbubadb, a synonym.

Azananata {Alpb. 18: auripigmentum). Orpiment. [Ar. as^ân^^ i.Gr. dpoEviwSv2 {Suppl. s.v.; cf. ADW 81 s.v.: Auripigment oderRealgar).] In GLAr. the wd. is vocalized %trttik&. The Lat form isaccounted for by dittography and the misreading of cb as tb, whence /.

Azarod See acarud.1 The italics and word divisions are mine. (N.B. ttrrta for ftma.)* C£ Ruska, TS 53.

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Azige (ADEL. Alcb. 17: de quibus omnibus [celestium corporummotibus, etc] a Ptolemeo in Azige compendiose scribitur). Name ofa work on astonomy attributed to Ptolemy. [At. a^rgj, astronomicaltobies.]

Azimuth (WALLINGF. Rut. 345:1326 azimuth proprie est longitudostelle a meridie...). Azimuth, nricsn'al longitude. [Ar. as-samt, vertical"path, track", azimuth.] Most dictionaries, including SOED (s.v.azimuth) derive from the pL as-sumitt. The Ar. wd. for azimuth, how-ever, is sing. (Suppl. s.v. and other Ar. dictionaries; cf. Wehr s.v.)and is the very same w i from which "zenith" derives. In the latterthe interpolation of the anaptyctic vowel / suggests a similar interpola-tion in as-samt, giving ML aspmitb, in which misreading of the minimsseems the most likely explanation of azimuth, a form strikingly closeto the pL The presence of an initial a in one form of the wd. and itsabsence in the other is easily explained: "zenith" derives from samtar-ra's in which the annexation oisamt to a following noun in genitivalrelationship precludes the use of the definite article al~.

Azoara (also: azophara: in Alkorano suo azophara sua capitulo tercioMachometus ita scribit WYCL. Ver. 1 254). Sura, chapter of the Koran.[Ar. as-stlra.]

Azoc (also: LC azoth: est argentum vivum ex quovis corpore metallicotractatum). Mercury. [SpAr. at^^Sq (ClAr. a^-^Hq, a%-zdwtiq). SeeGlos. 228 s.v. Sp. a%pj>ue.] This word is found in different forms inalchemical writings, viz. avpcb, asotb, a^ptt, aspot (ibid.). For the pro-nunciation in the Muslim West see MM no. 139.

Azttrum, -a, -ium (also: afurum, adzurium, asorium, asura, -e, -um,azure, -eum). (BACON xiv 7J: dicunt aliqui quod color laculus estcolor actiri.. .; SB 2 j : yris purpureum florem in modum azuri gerit;CatbA: sylke . . .sericum. . .: quadruplicis generis sunt senca dictaLatinis: est album bissus velut est asura jacinctus; Pat 317 m. 16: 1384anna. . .de auro cum uno leone de azureo rampante). 1. Lapis laznli,azure (esp. as blue pigment); 2. blue silk; 3. azure (heraldry). [SpAr. ?la%prd (Steiger, 147; <£ Iberian Romance forms <j^«/(Sp., Port), a%vr(OAragon.) QAr. la\award, lapis lazuli, f. Pers. Id^bward, Id/ward.]The letter / has disappeared, presumably because it has been thought atsome stage to be the def. article.1

Baldeldnos, -um (also: V>alHflrViinmri< baldequinus, balkenus, baude-Winnm, baudcquinus) (M. PAR. Meg. rv 644: s 1247 rex veste deauratafacto de preciocissimo baldf.kino.. .sedens;Gww.m638b: 1494 fit unum

1 In SpAr. and certain Moroccan dialects the agglutinated article is found(eg. UJSra "a brick" for SjSra, lingfoa for ingSsa (OAr. ijjis £ Aram.) "apear"; t£ W. Marcflia, Ttxtes arabes d$ Tangsr (Paris, 1911), 45J, 459). Isuspect that in a^tmm, etc., the loss of / may be due to hyper-correction.

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baldachinum pro papa.. . latitudinis unius et altitudinis duarumcannarum, habens pendalia.:.). i. Baldachin, brocade; 2. canopy.[Ult. Ar. adj. Baghdad! "of, from Baghdad".] From the Middle Agesdown to the seventeenth century Baghdad was commonly known in theWest as BaJdac (OSp.; see Steiger, 135), BaJdaeb, Ital. Baldacco, etc(EP n, 895 coL 1). The history of the term is not as straightforward ashas been thought by some scholars. Dozy evidently believes OSp.baJdaqtd to derive directly from the Ar. adj. (G/os. 234; cf. also Steiger,135, on baUaqtdtw). Corominas, however, may well be right in hisobservation that it is Catalan that accounts for the termination -1 for-in (which also occurs in OSp., Glos. 234). In this case the implication,if I am not mistqlrfn> is that it was through trans-Mediterranean tradethat the word entered rhristian Spain. This may be so, since I knowof no other wd. in OSp. in which the Ar. letter fb has emerged as /(see Steiger, 237 ff.), a point which is seemingly overlooked by Steiger(p. 135). On the view that Baldac and variants derive from a Chinesepronunciation of "Baghdad" see EP loc cit. and reft.

Barbacana, -am, -as (also: barbatana, barbecana, -us, barbicana,-akana, -ekena, -ukana) (Pipe 188: 117) pro barbakana et porta unafacienda; RSeae. Norm. 1 90: 1180 in barbacana ante castrum et inporta et turella ejusdem barbacanae reparanda; Liberate 19 m. 8:barbatariam ante portam castri; RGasc. 1 suppl. p. 50: 1255 barbacanasque sunt extra muros ville; IMisc 10/20: janua barbecani dcbilis est).Barbican, outwork. [Etymology obscure, but thought to derive ult. f.Ar. or Pers.] In the various European languages in which this wd., inwhatever form it occurs, has survived, it denotes some kind of outerdefensive work to a castle or city. The form taken by such an outworkvaries; it may be a screen-wall serving as a first tier of defence (seeAJ-Atulalus xvi (1951), 454 ff.), a gatehouse, a double tower over agate, a detached fortification, and so on. Accordingly a number ofetymologies, arbitrarily tailored to suit several different conceptionsof a barbican, have been proposed, viz. Ar.-Pers. bdb-kbdttab "gate-house" (Whitney, Century Diet., 1889), Pers. barbSr kbanab "house ona wall" [sic] (Funk and Wagnall, New "Standard" Diet., 1946), Pers.bdidMbanab("\ippct chamber, gallery on top of a building ")(MLW,1362), Ar.-Pers. barbakb-kbdnab "conduit-building" (cf. GrandLarousseeneyclopidique, 1960-8, 1, 899: "galerie servant de rempart devant uneporte"; E. Gamillscheg, Etymol. W6rterb. d. frames. Spraebe, 1969,p. 82: " . . .aus persisch-arabisch barbab-bdni 'Wall*.. .nicht persischbdlakbanab 'Erkcr'"), Ar. b(db) al-baqara "cows' [sic] gate" (Corominass.v. barbacana). In support of this last Corominas explains that the"puerta de las vacas" was so called "porque la barbacana protegia unrecinto intermedio entre esta fortdficaci6n y la muralla principal en elcual los sitiados guardaban el ganado destinado a proveerlos de came".The loss of -db in bdb is explained by haplology, and the resulting

59


balbaeara is thought to have been influenced by albarrana, Le. a towerdetached from and in front of the curtain wall but connected with thelatter by a walled passage.

Despite the Real Academia's acceptance of Corominas' explanation(Die. dt la lengua tspaHola, i9thed., 1970), I personally, for several reasonswhich I need not go into here, remain wholly unconvinced. To takeonly one point, die "torre albarrana" seems to have been a thirteenth-century invention of Muslim Spain (EP nr, 500). Our Lat wd., how-ever, was known in Italy in 1156 and in southern France in 1163(Corominas, loc tit; cf. Gamillscheg, op. tit, loc tit) whereas itsearliest known occurrence in the Iberian Peninsula goes back no furtherthan the thirteenth century (Corominas). As regards the other sugges-tions, they are all open to objections, not least of which is the lack ofany real evidence that they ever formed part of the technical vocabularyof military architecture in the Near and Middle East. In other words,they are purely speculative and must remain so until we know fromsystematic historical and archaeological studies what the originalbarbican was. If these show it to have been some kind of buttresstower projecting in front of the curtain (and here I bear in mind thedefinition "an outer fortification to a castle or fortress; less properly,any outwork, as a bridge-tower" (Funk and Wagnall, loc. tit)), onepossibility worth investigating would be bury barranJ "outer tower,bastion" (not necessarily denoting the same kind of outwork as theHispano-Arab torre albarrana). In this case one might think of barba-cana < barcbarana < borcbbaran' < borgbarran' < burg barran(i). Althoughthe type of defensive structure denoted by the expression torre albarranamay have been peculiar to Muslim Spain, the terminology need nothave been so. On the bur/ (cf. Gr. -nOpyos, Lat burgus) see EP 1,1315 ff. On barran for barrdnJ see Glos. 69.

Bargia, -ium (also: barga, baric') (Cl. 1 103b: 1208 in sella sum-mariorum et in baric' et in alio minuto harnesio; ibid. 128b: 1213bargia ad sellam; ibid.: pro iiij collariis et ij avalariis et ij bargiis et vcapistris). 1. Saddle-pad. 2. (?) collar-pad. [Ar. bardba'a (colloq. bardta)cloth placed under pack-saddle.] The phenomenon -dia > -gia presentsno difficulty; cf. Lat bodie > ItaL oggi. On the form barda sec MLWi$~j4; cf. Sp. albarda (Corominas s.v.).

Baro (also: nepo) (J. GAD. 131 v. 1: sunt aliquando vermes in nasoet cum nasus comprimitur exeunt, qui vocantur barones vel nepones).Worm infesting the nose. [Pats. Ar. dud, worms (collect)] This Ar.w i is that used by Avicenna for worms infesting the teeth (IS n, 192/CanV 233), ears, ulcers, etc (ibid, m 174/454v). The co-existence ofbaro and tupo suggests a poor Oriental hand as the source of error: dwill have.merged with w (it) > r (thereby being put in need of at least onediacritical point either above or below it to give either n or b respec-tively), and the final d will have been mistaken for w (it), the resulting

60


brv being vocalized as barU. In the case of itepo, all three Arabic letterswill have merged or not been very clearly separated. The first letterwill then have been read as ft, the second (now in need of a diacriticalpoint) as/(/>£), and the last as w {it), thereby giving nafU (> nepbo).

Barras (BACON, Sen. r x : . . .ex infirmitate cutis ut in morphea etbarras). This is aJbaras (q.v.) without the Ar. article.

Barriom (RGase. n 354: 1289 potent habere.. .fumum in . . .bastidaet barrio.. .bastide). Suburb, extra-mural quarter. [Sp. barrio f. Ar.barr, outer quarter (of a town), suburb (on which see Suppl. s.v.), pass.(though I am not entirely convinced) through a colloq. SpAr. formbarri (cf. Corominas s.v. barrio).]

Basantxm, -a (also: basantus, -um, basaynum, bascennus, -um, baszenus,-um, bazan, bazen, bazannus, -um) (Manners 10: 1265 pro vj pellibusbaszeni). Basan, sheep's leather. [OF basane < Sp. badana < Ar. bifdnd,dressed sheepskin.] Mispronunciation of the Sp. d almost certainlyaccounts for the %}s in Lat. and OF. On Ar. / > Sp. d see GIos. 19,and on f > d, d > f in modem Moroccan see Brunot, op. tit (s.v.aleamta), 449 (Jarrab for OAr. darrab), G. Marcais, Textts arabes deTanger, 473 (mdfa* for ClAr. mawaT), J. D. T ttham in JSS v (i960), 140and n. 6. Corominas doubts the etymology, but see Glos. 231 f. andDie. de la lengua espaBola (see above s.v. barbacand), 170.

•Rp«iHm [Sc tabula] (Oxf. Hist. Soc Lxxvm, 370: ai35o in cujusbase est tabula quadrata.. .que tabula basilica didtur; et hec tabulabasilica tabule equinoctiali conjungitur...). Part of a turquet (astron.).[Ar. bdsiUqi]

Bantanra (B. COTTON, Hist. 218 (Lit. Soldam adrtgim Armettu): 1291iste litere nostre magno forti regi Haytoni Bautaura). Honorific title.[Pers. babddur f. Altaic "courageous", "hero", used both as surnameand honorific title.] On the history of the term see EP 1 913 andG.Doerfer, THrk. u. mottgal. Elements im Neupersiscben n, 366 f.

Bedegar (J. GAD. 120. 2: cum decoctione bedegar, i. eglentie, collua-tur os; Alpb. 22: est quedam tub[e]rositas crescens juxta radicem veprisqui vocatur egkntitr). 1. Eglantine; 2. rose-galL [Ar. f. Pers. bSdavard"fetched-by-the-wind", name of a number of thorny plants or shrubs,especially and primarily various genera of thistle characterized in somerespect by whiteness and including safflower (Blachere, Choufeu andDenizeau, Diet, arabe-franfais-angkds (Paris, 1964- ) s.v. bddaward),doubtless because of the litter's resemblance to a variety of thistle(cf. M-S n 307).] Initially die Arabs identified the bJdfedward(an Ar.spelling) with Gr. &<av6a Aaflrfi, Lat Sputa alba (M-S no. 143 in n304 &.) and subsequently it was confused with all sorts of thornyplants (Dubler, Diose. 1 89 coL 1) and - though I say this with somediffidence -possibly with the wild rose because the last four letters

61


mean "rose(s)" in Ar. (ward). Could the maze of confusion extendeven further? Could fiiaxvOa 7wKf\ in its Arabicized fbtm aqantdliup(-Jawqi by hyper-correction in Dubler, loc cdt.) be the etymology of"eglantine" rather tha" acukntus (SOED s.v. eglantine)? Since n andq are eonfusibilia in Occidental Ar., and as an Ar. scribe would find-Sm a more probable termination than -Oql,1 we may perhaps have aprocess of corruption beginning with aqantdJOm > aqalantimi and end-ing in eglantine. Cf. the Lat. albedeguart (Calenarier de Cordoue, 133),bedeoard (CattV 97), bedecar (ibid. 5 5 5), etc

Bedmmu, -ewinns, -nwinns. 1. Bedouin [Ar. badawi (an Arab) "ofthe desert" (baaw), not f. pL badawin (as in SOED s.v. Bedouin); onAr. adj. termination -/ > -inus in Lat. see above p. 39); 2. an adj.denoting a kind of stone or perhaps a gem, in which case "Arabian " ( ?)(Pat 147b: 121 j unum lapidem bedewinum). Could it be that we haveto do with the so-called bajar a'rdbi (Af8os 'Apo@\x6sllapis Arabicus)which Siggel is tempted to identify with white marble ("weiBer Mar-mor (?)", ADW 76) ? Bedewinus would be a more accurate translation ofa'rdbi than Arabicus ('arabf). Cf. Dubler, Diose. n 435 1, brvii).

Been (J. GAD. 6j v. 2: oleum de been, de pipere albo et aliispiperibus). Ben-nut. [Ar. ban, ben tree LKindi 241; cf. ADW 19.]Cf. CanV 97 (ben), 162v (been).

Beja (DASTYN, Ras. 7: est ergo solutio nostra ut tradas GabricumBeje in conjugium). (?) Silver. [Pr. Ar. Idjm, lujayn, pure silver (ADW87).] If the EngL meaning is correct, the Lat wd. probably stems fromthe suspension leja' (representing an incorrect form Idjaynt).

Belenum 1. Persea (bot). 2. Henbane. Whatever the etymology, it ishardly that suggested in ML.W s.v., viz. Ar. labakb > baiakb > balan.

Bellirictu (also: belbricus, bellericus) (Alpb. 117: mirabolanorumspecies sunt quinque bonorumctttinus, ebulus, bellericus...). Belleric,bastard myrobalan, i.e. Terminalia bellirica [Ar. batilaj f. Pers. baJt/a(< Pahlavi baJtlag)].

Belota (ALF. ANGL. Plant. 1 i 4 : . . . u t belotae [gloss.: glandes]).Acom [Ar. balltif, oak, acom.] Dozy incorrectly believes the Sp.bellota to be the nomen unitatis, viz. ballOfa (Glos. 239); see my com-ments above, p. 40 n. 2.

Bengi (SB 12: jusquiamius albus). Henbane. [Ar. ban/.] On this plantsee ADW 21 and LKindi, 246.

Berberis. Barberry, Le. Berberis vulgaris. [Ar. ambarbdrls; cf. MMno. 17.] Of this term, which is clearly not of Ar. origin, we encountervariants such as anbarbdrts, amir bdris (whence amerbaris of Lag. 154),

1 For Sq> SncL the case of altataxacon (q.v.).

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amir farts ("Persian emir "I) (see Hespfris sn (1931), 219). The usualAr. form is barbdris or barbarii (M-S no. 1 j ; ADW 19). I attribute theloss of am- to the fact of its being felt to be the definite article. Cf.Moroccan Ar. bdsbadiir{< Sp. embajador) "ambassador" {Suppl. s.v.).

Berile (J. GAD. 64 v. 2: pisds qui vocatur tarcon [L narcon]; et diciturpiscdsistemcrguri;ctsecundumAviceanam.. .vocaturberile). Electricray, Le. a flat fish of the genus Torpedo. [Ar. narqS f. Gr. vAptcrv] Com-parison of the Lat. trans, with the Ar. text (see IS n \01\CanV 202) con-firmed my immediate suspicion that b had been pointed as n, ^ read andpointed / (j), and a final Maghrib! alif (/) with marked downstrokeand tail had been mistaken for /. A queried ndrqd is recorded in Suppl.s.v. and is defined as "sea-/water-soorpion". This may well have beenanother name for the torpedo.

Bezona [? -is] (GILB. VT 237 v. 1: digeratur materia.. .cum dyantoscommune vel bezonis). Sort of electuary. [Pass. Ar. banfanusb f. Pers.panj-nSsb "five draughts", an electuary containing iron-filings, wine,almond oil and other simples (L-K, 189 n. 13;).] On the loss of n(in nj, ng, n%) cf. acarud (above s.v.), banjakusbt (LKindl, 247, etcAlternatively, a ML abbreviation may have been responsible.

Bocasero Bocassine (cotton fabric). [Turk, bogast, now denoting athin twill used for linings.]

Borago (Alpb. 24: buglossa.. .acuta habet folia ad modum boraginis).Borage. [Vulgar Ar. bU burcsb "father of (Le. characterized by) rough-ness" (of the leaves); cf. Fr. bourrachc.] I base my conclusion on thefact that (a) abU buraysb and obi kburdsk (Dozy: ? kbrecb) are recordedin Suppl. s.w. with the meanings "buglosse" and "bourrache"respectively; (b) lisd/t al-tbawr "bull's tongue" was a term applied toBorrago officinalis (GVR ho. 295); (c) lisdn al-tbawr was confused withlisdn "tongue", Le. Echium plantagineum, which in Le (Here's MS ofIbn al-BaytSr was glossed as bi kb.rysb (Le Oerc's "Bou kberisb")(IBLc no. 2024). From these facts we may be sure that Doxy's bUburaysb and the gloss bU kb.rysb are one and the same term and that theword, in Europe, came to denote borage alone. The form buraysb is tobe explained either as a SpAr. dialectal pronunciation of burdsb withimdla (palatalisation of i ) or by the fact of its being felt to be a diminu-tive of the pattern fu'ayl. 1$ > kt may have arisen in the writtenlanguage since there is only one diacritical point difference betweenthe two, or in the European pronunciation of the letter b (see s.v.alcamtd). The g in the Lat borage is not hard to explain once dieshift b > £b is accepted. (On kb. > g in OSp. see Glos. 13 f.)

Borax (also: borbax, borteza, baurac, -ch, -th) (LC 226: baurac est salgemmae saphirhim lithargyrum albificatum; est etiam sal vitri [? Lni t r i ] . . . ; etiam est attinchar, quodlibet genus salsuginis). Borax and

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other types of chemical salt. [Vulgar Ar. bSraq (OAr. bawrdq, -aq)f. Pers. bSra (< Pahlavi bSrak); sec M-S no. 183 in n 372 ff.; LKindl,248; Glos. 241, etc

Botfaor (SB 13: pustule parve qui fiunt in puctis; ibid.: bothor Mariae,L panis portinus idem). 1. Rash, acne. [Ar. butbQr (sing, batbr), pimples,pustules; cf. And. s.v. botbor: idest variole, and CanV 555V: esteminentia in cute. s. apostema parvum sive pustula.] 2. (w. Mariae)Cyclamen. [Ar. bakbSr (vulgar buMhar) Matyam "Mary's incense",i.e. Cyclamen Europaeum; cf. And. baebur mortem.

Brasfllum, -a, -tun (GILB. n 79 v. 2: distemperentur cum decoc-tione brasilii). Brazil, brazilwood (dye). This word is problematical,and many believe it to be of European origin (e.g. OFr., OSp., e tc;see Corominas s.v.). In MLW s.v. the etymology given is Ar. wars,and indeed And., defining brazilwood [albacbam; see below), writes:Albacham idest verzi & est lignum rubeum, quo tinctores utuntur adcolorem rubeum faciendum. But is versp the Ar. wars? I am sceptical.Wdris as an adj. qualifying clothing does signify "red", but wars, asfar as I know, has no mining other than (a) Memecylon tinctoriumand (b) Flemmingia rhodocarpa, both of which seem to be used in theproduction of dyes that are basically yellow (ADW 73). One line ofinvestigation I think worth following has as its point of departure theregular Ar. iwm for brazilwood (Cacflaipina sappan), viz. baqqam(albacham). In CanV we read (a) Albacal [al-baqqam] idest bresilum(553); (b) Bresilis idest corallus (555V); (e) Lapis bresil est corallus(557V). Moreover, in And. s.v. lapis we find: Lapis taselis vel baselissecundum aliquos Arabes est lapis besd idest corallus. From And. it isclear that besd (< Ar. basad f. Pers. bussad), red coral (cf. Dubler,Diosc. 1 98; M-S no. 182 in n 371 f.) generated the adj. baselis (< Ar.basadt) and that lapis baselis is pa/ar basadi. Now it is interesting tonote that (a) a synonym of basad is /wor/V&r/vulgar murjan (Dubler, M-S,loc at.), from which noun the adj. marjatd derives; (b) a species ofbaqqam, brazilwood, is qualified as marfdni (Suppl. s.v. baqqam). Theo-retically, if basad and marjdn are interchangeable there seems noreason why basadJ and marjdm should not also be. Could it be that wehave to do with (a) basadi for baqqam basadl; (b) Ar. basadl > MLver%t\bresiBs\basilis'} The consonantal variants in the ML wds. are nothard to explain: accepting basadi > basari as straightforward (thenoun basar does in fact occur and is registered in M-S loc cit.), wemay perhaps postulate (a) penp < bar si < basari (by metathesis); (jb)bresilis (barasitis) < barasi (on Ar. -/ > Lat. -ilis, see above p. 39) <basari, etc

64


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ABBREVIATIONS

[N.B. I have not thought it necessary to include all ML items, especiallyas a knowledge of the source is not always essential or relevant tomy present purpose. All frequent or really important items are listedas well as all Arabic works of reference.]

ADEL. Alcb. [Attrib.] Adelard o£Jhxh,LJbriysagogarumalcborismii-}in Abbandl. %ur Gescb. des Matbtmatik vm, 3-27. Ed. E. L. W. M.Curtze, Leipzig, 1892.

ADW A. Siggel, Arabiscb-deutsches WSrterbucb der Stoffe, Akad.-Verlagi Berlin, 19J0.

ALF. ANGL. Alfredus Anglicus de ShareshulL ALF. ANGL. Plant.Nicolai Damasctm de planiis libri duo.. .Ex Isaac Ben Honain versionsarabica latine vertit Alfrtdus. Ed. E. H. F. Meyer, Leipzig, 1841.

AJpb. Alpbita: a medico-botanical glossary from the Bodleian manuscriptSeldm B JJ. Ed. J. L. G. Mowat (Anecdota Oxoniensia), Oxford,1887.

And. Andreae de Alpago Bellunensis de arabicorum nominum significantcompendium in Principis Avic. Libri Canoni (tr. Gerard of Cremona),Venice, 1527 (no pagination).

BACON R. Bacon, Opera bottoms inedita. Ed. R. Steele, Oxford,1909- . Vols. i-xvi published. The first is a re-issue of Londoned. of 1905.

BACON, Maj. Id. Opus Mafus. Ed. J. H. Bridges, 2 vols., Oxford,1897 (suppL voL with corrections 1900).

BACON, Min. Id. Opus Minus in Opera quatdam bactenus inedita, 1.Ed. J. S. Brewer, London, 1859, pp. 313-89.

BRADW. CD Thomas Bradwardinus, De Causa Dei. Ed. H. Savile,London, 1618.

Calendrier de Cordoue. Le Calendrier de Cordout [de PamUe g6i] pubLR. Dozy. New ed. of Ar. and Latl text with French tr., etc, by Ch.Pellat, Leiden, 1961.

CanV Liber Canords Avicentu revisus &.. .purgatus, Venice, 1507(repr. Hildeshdm, 1964).

CatbA Catbolicon Anglkum, an English-Latin wordbook.. .148}. Ed.S. J. H. Herrtage, London, 1882. v

Corominas. J. Corominas, Diccionario critico etimoUgico de la lenguacastellana, 4 vols., Madrid, 1954-7.

DASTYN, Ros. J. Dastin, Rosarium seeretissimum pbilosopborum arca-num comprebendens in J. J. Manget, Cbemica Curiosa n, Colon. Allo-brogum, 1702.

Dubler, Diosc. C E. Dubler, La "Materia Midiea" de Dioscorides.Transmision medieval y renaeenrista, 2 vols. (vol. 2 with E. Terds),Barcelona-Tetuan, 1952-7.

EHR EngHsb Historical Review.

5 65 si 17!


El* Tbe Encyclopaedia of Islam. Ed. H. A. R. Gibb and others, Leiden-London, i 9 6 0 - .

Expug. Terrae Sanctae. Radulpbi de CoggesbaU Cbromcon AngHcanum.Ed. J. Stevenson, London, 1875, pp. 209-62.

Foed. T. Rymer, Foedera, conventiones, littrat et cufuscunque generis Adapublica inter Regis Angtiae, etc 20 vols. 2nd ed., London, 1704-32.

GILB. Gilbertus Anglicus, Compendium Medidnae. Ed. M. de Capella,Lyons, 1510.

Glos. R. P. A. Dozy and W. H. Engelmann, Glosscart des motsespagnols et portugais dirivis de Parabe. 2nd ed., Leiden, 1869 (repr.Amsterdam, 196)).

GVR M. Asin Palados, Glosario de voces romances.. .{sigh Xt-xnt),Madrid-Granada, 1943.

IB Ibn al-Bay£ir, al-Jdmi* li-mufraddt al-adwiya wa-l-agbdiya, z vols.[4 parts], Cairo, 1874 (repr. recently Baghdad, n.d.).

IBLc French tr. of the above by L. Leclerc as "Traits' des Simplespar ibn Beithar" in Notices et extraits des mamucrits de la BtbliotbiqtttNationale, xxm, xxv, xxvi, Paris, 1877-83.

IS Ibn Slni (Avicenna), al-Qantin (Ar. text of the Canon), 3 vols.,Bukq, 1877-8 (repr. Baghdad c. 1969).

. J. GAD. John of Gadesden, Rosa Anglica seu Rosa Medicinae. Ed.W. Wiolfi London, 1929.

Lag. C E. Dubler, "Los nombres arabes de matrria mddica en laobra del doctor Laguna" (translator of Dioscorides in sixteenthcent.) in AI-Andahs xvi (19J1), 141-64.

LC W. Johnson, Lexicon Cbymicum, 2 p t , London, 1652.LK Al-Samarqandl, The Medical Formulary. Ar. text, tr., etc by

M. Levey and N. al-Khaledy, Pennsylvania U.P., 1967.LKindi Al-Kindi, The Medical Formulary or Aqrdbddbin. Ar. text,

tr., etc , by M. Levey, Wisconsin U.P., 1966.MLW MitttUatemscbes WBrterbucb. Hrsg. v. d. Bayerischen Akad.

der Wissenschaften xa Berlin, Munich, 1959- .MM Maimonides, Sorb asmd* al-'uqqdr. . .Un glossaire de matiire

midicale. Ed. and tr. by M. Meyerhof, Cairo, 1940.M.PAR. Ma/. Matthew Paris, Cbronica Mafora. Ed. H. R. Luard,

7 vols., London, 1872-83.M. PAR. Mm. Id., Historia Anglorum sm.. .Historia Minor. Ed.

F. Madden, 3 vols., London, 1866-9.M-S Al-Ghafiqi, Tbe Abridged Version of "The Book of Simple Drugs"

by.. .Barbebraeus. Ar. text, tr., e tc , by M. Meyerhof and G. P. Sobhy,4 fascs. (all published), Cairo, 1932-40.

M. SCOT, Lumen. Lumen Luminum. Ed. J. Wood Brown in Enquiryinto tbe Life and Legend of Michael Scot, Appendix 3, pp. 240-68,Edinburgh, 1897.

ORD. VIT. Ordericu8 Vitalis, Historiae Ecclesiasticae. Ed. AugustusLc Prevost, j vols., Paris, 1838-5 j .

66


PP Promptorium Parpulorum sm Ckritorum Lexicon Anglo-LathamPrinceps autore.. .Galfredo Grammatico ditto. Ed. A. Way, 3 vols.,London, 1843-65.

P J . - R I C Anat. Pseudo-Ricardus, Anatomia. Ed. R. Toply, Vienna,1902.

RGasc. Roles gascons (1242-1307). 3 vols. in 4 (Minist. dc linstrucrionPublique, Docs, inid.), Paris, 1885-1906.

RISHANGER William de Rishangcr, Chronica et Amahs. Hettr. JH-Edw. I (i2j9-i}of). Ed. H. T. Riley, London, 1865.

ROB. ANGL. AJcb. Robertas Anglicus, LJber de Composition* AJcbe-mioe [tr. f. Arabic], Ed. J. J. Manget in Bibliotbeca Cbtmica Curiosa 1,Colon. AUobrogum, 1702.

ROB. ANGL. Alg. Liber Restaurationis et Oppositionis Ntmeri: Robertof Chester's Latin Translation of the Algebra of AJ-KAovari^m. Ed.L. C Karpinski (Univ. of Michigan Studies), Ann Arbor-NewYork, 1915.

RScat. Norm. Magni Rotuli ScatcarU Normanniae. Ed. Thomas Staple-ton, 2 vols., London, 1840-4.

Roska, TS J. Ruska, Tabula Smaragdhta, Heidelberg, 1926.SACROB. Spb. The Sphere of Sacroboseo and its Commentators by Lynn

Thomdike, Chicago U.P., 1949.SB Sinonoma Bartbolomei [A fourteenth-century glossary]. Ed.

J. L. G. Mowat (Anecdota Oxoniensia), Oxford, 1887.Scrap. P. Guigues," Les noms arabes dans S&apion,' liber de Simplici

Medicina'** in. Journal Asiatique io* set. v (1905), May-June, 473-546,July-August, 49-115.

SOED The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. 3rd ed., revised •withaddenda, Oxford, 1956 (repr. 1970).

S.SIM. Itin. Itinerarium Symonis Semeoms ab Hybernia ad TerramSanctam. Ed. M. Esposito, Dublin, i960.

Steiger A. Steiger, Contributtin a la fonitita del bispano-drabe j de losarabismos en el ibero-romdnicoj elsiciliano, Madrid, 1932.

Suppl. R. P. A. Dozy, Supplement aux dutionnaires arabes, 1 vols.,Leiden, 1927.

TURNER, Herb. W. Turner, Iibellus de Re Herbaria Novus [1583],repr. in facsimile with notes . . . by D. B. Jackson, London, 1877.

WAT.T.INGF. Rect. Richard of Wallingford, Reetangulus. Ed. R. T.Gunther in Early Science in Oxford n (Oxf. Hist. Soc ucvm), Oxford,1922.

WW T. Wright, Anglo-Saxon and Old English Vocabularus. Ed. andcollated by R. P. Wulcker. 2nd ed., 2 vols., London, 1884.

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