Castal

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Castal vocant arabes castaneam nos imitantes nam ea carent.


Apparatus:

imitantes (-tã- AC p) AC pj | ĩmitantes B e | n mittantes f


Translation:

The Arabs say castal for Latin castanea {"chestnut"} imitating our name, for they do not have this tree.


Commentary:

This word is, as Simon says, a loan from Latin or Greek.

Cf. Vocabulista, ed. Schiaparelli (1871: 162): ﻗﺼﻄﻠﺔ /qaṣṭala/ Castanea [[1]]; ed. Schiaparelli (1871: 284): CASTANEA ﻗﺼﻄﻠﺔ ﺍﺕ ﻭﻗﺼﻄﻞ /qaṣṭala + āt wa-qaṣṭal/ [[2]].

Cf. Corriente (1989: 247), s.v. *QṢṬL: >qaṣṭala + āt qaṣṭal < castaña {i.e. "chestnut"} (< ar. >qṣṭnyā< < κάστανα /kástana/ = καστανέα < /kastanéa/ > nux castănĕa). [castanea]. Also Corriente (1997: 427), s.v. *QSṬL/N.

Dozy (1877-81: II.345): ﻗﺼﻄﻞ /qaṣṭal/ or /qaṣṭall/, the latter form occurring in the Glossarium Latino Arabicum. The form /qaṣṭall/ is not mentioned in Vocabulista. Dozy ibid. also mentions a lemma: ﻗﺼﻄﻦ /qaṣṭan/, which shows more clearly the origin of these words. They are obviously loans from Latin castanea or Greek < κάστανον /kástanon/.

Use of the word by the Mozarabs is confirmed in Simonet (1888: 110): CASTHÁL y CASTHÁLL [[3]]. The accent on the last syllable suggests the pronunciation /qaṣṭáll/. Simonet also mentions a number of variant forms closer to ﻗﺼﻄﻦ /qaṣṭan/.

Cf. Wehr (1976): ﻗﺼﻄﻞ /qaṣtal/ "(eg.) chestnut".

WilfGunther 11:41, 17 October 2014 (BST)


See also: Castana, Kastana

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