Berigil

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Berigil arabice petrosselinum ut in libro de doctrina arabica aliter autem apud Avicennam.


Apparatus:

Berigil AC | Beregil B efjp
arabice | infra ms. e
petrosselinum AC | petroselinũ B | petrosellinũ (-i͡n f) efjp
{arabica} ms. p adds an attempt to write ﺑﺮﺟﻞ /biriğil/ in Arabic script
autem om. ef


Translation:

Berigil is Arabic for Latin petrosselinum {"parsley"} as stated in the Liber de doctrina arabica; but a different word is used in Avicenna’s work.


Commentary:

Berigil:
This lemma cannot be found in Vocabulista, thereby proving amongst other things that it is not identical with the liber de doctrina arabica.
The word is however found in Simonet (1888: 679), book pages 435/436, who mentions: PERRIXÍN, defined by one of his sources, Pedro de Alcalá, as perexil yerua {i.e. "the herb perexil"} and with variants: PEREXÍL or PERIXÍL[[1]]. According to Simonet this word is of Romance origin {v.i.} and it was used by so-called Mozarabs, i.e. by Spanish Arabic speaking (mainly) Christians. He lists a number of Romance, Basque and European forms that all derive ultimately from Latin petroselinon/ petroselinum, which is itself adopted from Greek πετροσέλινον /petrosélinon/ id. For an analysis of the word petroselinon see Simon’s entry Petroselinum.

According to Corominas (1980-91: vol.ME-RE.536), s.v. PIEDRA, Spanish perejil, Old Spanish perexil {pronounced */perešíl/} is a loan from Old Provençal pe(i)resil, which is a reflex of a Vulgar Latin form petrosīlĕnon > *petrisilnu > *petrisillu > pe(i)resil.

The word is also found in Karbstein (2002: 182), and was therefore still in use in the early 17th c. at the time when this glossary was compiled. His entry reads - n.b. only the Romance entries are vocalised in the Arabic script: ﻛﺮﻓﺲ ﺟﺒﻠﻱ ﺑﻃﺮﺳﻠﻴﻮﻥ ﻋﺠﻤﻴﺔ ﺑﺮﺟﻞ ﻭﺟﻠﺒﺮﺕ /karafs ğabaliy baṭrasāliyūn ʕağamiyah biriğil wa-ğulibirti/ - "mountain parsley, petroselinon, in Romance /biriğil/ {= perexil} and ğulibirti", the latter being Catalan julivert, pronunciation: Old Catalan IPA *[ʤuli'bert], Modern [ʒuli’βer(t)] "parsley"}.

ﺑﺮﺟﻞ /biriğil/ was naturally restricted to Spain and is not used in the Arabic writing medical literature, where either a Greek derived loan-word like ﻓﻄﺮﺍﺳﺎﻟﻴﻮﻥ /faṭrāsāliyūn/ is used or the Arabic ﻛﺮﻓﺱ /karafs/. Cf. Avicenna in the Arabic original, p. 238, who has a chapter entitled ﻓﻄﺮﺳﺎﻟﻴﻮﻥ /faṭrasāliyūn/ [[2]], cf. Siggel p. 20: ﺑﻄﺮﺍﺳﺎﻟﻨﻮﻥ /baṭrāsālinūn/ and p. 56: ﻓﻄﺮﺍﺳﺎﻟﻴﻮﻥ /faṭrāsāliyūn/ Petroselinum sativum (Umb.) Petersilie {i.e. "parsley"} πετροσέλινον {/petrosélinon/}. In this short chapter Avicenna refers the reader to his chapter under ﻓﺼﻞﺍﻟﻜﺎﻑ /faṣl al-kāf/ {i.e. to the chapter found under "the Arabic letter /kāf/"}; and to be more precise, he is referring to the chapter entitled ﻛﺮﻓﺱ /karafs/ [[3]] i.e. "On apium {‘celery’}". N.b. In Antiquity and the Middle Ages the difference between "parsley" and "celery" was often ignored.

The Latin translation of Avicenna’s chapter simply reads: [Goehl] 2nd book, Capitulum 560 (559}. De petroselino {annotation: fatrasilium}.
Petroselinum. Dictum est in Capitulo de apio – "{More} is said in the chapter 'On Apium'." The text is also available in the Lyon edition (1522: 115) [[4]].


WilfGunther 18:59, 31 August 2014 (BST)


For further information see Apium; for the etymology of the Greek word see Petroselinum and for the Arabic term see Kerff, Karfi.


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