. ïàçéøìà áç 䧧á åéøâøâ 2íäå ñãä 1éáðéò #YNBY HDS, these are its seeds, Arab. HB. "LRYH. "N
Hebrew #YNBY HDS are “berries of the myrtle, Myrtus communis L.” (for #YNB cf. KB ; JD ; LW :f.; KA :, :f.; BM ; for HDS cf. KB ; JD ; KA :; BM ; AEY :; FE ; FEB ; FM ; FO ff.; KT :; LA :; LF :; for the Aramaic term for myrtle, cf. Alef no. ). The phrase features in Rabbinic literature, e.g. yMaas III, d. Arabic habb. ar-rayh¯. an means “seeds or berries of the myrtle” (L ; D :; M ; DT :; ID :). Rayh¯. an originally meant any odoriferous plant, and subsequently came to designate the myrtle in the Maghreb and basil in the East (DT :). For the identification of Hebrew HDS as Arabic rayh¯. an,cf.Davidb. Abraham al-F¯as¯ı on Esther : (SF :): äñãä úà ïîà éäéå (He was foster father to Hadassah): §§äðàçéø éáøòìàá éîñé àîë,andal-Idr¯ıs¯ı (IJS :); cf. Maimonides’ Medical Aphorisms (XXI, ), where ) Do'AB - HB K (basil(?) which is the same as “ar-rayh¯.an al-qaranful¯ı”) is translated by Z as: åìôåøâì åçéøá äîåãä ñãää àåäå êùîâðô. For the identification of Hebrew HDS as Arabic as¯ , cf. Alef no. .
. 4äñàéìéèðéì 짧áå áìçè 䧧á íéîä 3ùãò #DS˘ HMYM,Arab.T. HLB. ,o.l.LYNTYLY. "SH
Hebrew #DS˘ HMYM designates “duck weed”, Lemna L. (BM : #DSY˘ HMYM (cf. V); AEY :: #DST˘ HMYM). The term also features as íéîä éùãò in the Sefer Zedat. ha-derakhim, i.e. Moses ibn Tibbon’s Hebrew translation of Ibn al-Jazz¯ar’s Z¯ad al-mus¯afir,whichMosesibnTibbon completed in the year .5 Subsequently we find the term in the Sefer
1 éáðéò: éáðò VO 2 íäå: íä O 3 ùãò: éùãò V 4 äñàéìéèðéì: àñàìéèðéì O àùàìéèðéì V 5 Cf. Ibn al-Jazz¯ar on Skin Diseases and Other Afflictions of the Outer Part of the Body. A New Parallel Arabic-English translation of Bk. chs. – with a Critical Edition of shem tov, synonym list
Magen Avot writtenbySimeonbenZema. h. Duran (–): éùãò íéîä éðô ìòù ä÷åøé àåäå áìçèìà ïéøå÷ù íéîä (#DSY˘ HMYM is called at-. tu. hlub. and it is conferva, Chaetomorpha linum) (Jacob :; following BM ) (cf. mShab .; AEY :; LF :, :). Arabic tu. hlub. designates the plant Lemna minor L. and Var., “water lentil” (L ; D :; DT :; M ; ID :; LA ff.:), and is also called ‘adas al-m¯a’ (cf. DT :). The Arabic term features in Maimonides’ Medical Aphorisms (IX, ; XXI, ; XXV, ; cf. BMMb ) where it is translated as: íéîä éùãò /áìçè by N and as: ä÷åøéä /áìçè íéîä éðô ìòù by Z. The vernacular variants have to be interpreted as augmentative forms of the O. Occ. lentil(h)a/lentilla and/or O. Cat. l(l)entilla for ‘lentil’ (DAO :s.; RL :b; CB , among others; RMA ; RM ; DCVB :a; DECLC :b). Such forms are documented for the modern stages of the languages in question: Occ. lentillasso (inanOcc. variety in the Piedmontese Alps, FEW :b), which should have been *lentilhassa in O. Occ.; Cat. llentillassa (besides llentillarra and llentil- latxa, see DCVB :b). It remains unclear in the dictionaries if the meaning is indeed ‘water lentil’, as has to be supposed on the basis of the Arabic and Hebrew synonyms. For O. Occ., only the name lentilla (Lemna minor L., DAO :) appears to have been the form known for thisplantupuntilnow.TheRomancenamesforthewaterlentilusu- ally more or less follow the model of the Med. Lat. lenticula aque (e.g. Fr. lentille d’eau), probably taken from the Arabic term mentioned above (see Sin b), cf. also Mod. Occ. lentilho d’aigua (DAO, loc. cit.), Mod. Cat. llentilla d’aigua (DCVB :a). Note that the Latin term as well as O. Sp. lantejuela del agua (Sin b; DETEMA :c) are diminutive forms, so that, for the wordin questionhere, it seems strange at first glance that an augmentative form should have been used to designate this plant; but it has to be considered that “[t]he suffix [i.e. -AS and -ASA < Lat. -ACEUS, -ACEA] gave an idea of quantity to the simple word, or greatness in size [. . .]” (WfP ).
Moses Ibn Tibbon’s Medieval Hebrew Translation by G. Bos and a study of the Romance terminology by Guido Mensching and Julia Zwink (forthcoming).