Hacharcharach
Hacharcharach arabice piretrum harchar caraha alicubi scripsit Stephanus alibi harcharehaha.
Apparatus:
Hacharcharach AC | Hachar charach ms. e | Harcarcarach f | Hacacarcharaha B
harchar caraha f | acacarcha raha B | harchar archaracha ms. e | archaha AC
{harchar caraha} alicubi ABC e | ali' {= alibi} f
scripsit om. B f
Stephanus om. e
{Stephanus} & acharcharea alicubi scripsit add. B | et hacharcharha alicubi scripsit add. f
alibi om. f
harchar caraha ms. e | Harcharcataha f | harcharehaha AC | barcharcathea B {'h' misread as 'b'}
Translation:
Hacharcharach is Arabic for Latin piretrum {"pellitory"}, Stephanus writes in some places harchar caraha and somewhere else harcharcataha.
Commentary:
This Arabic lemma has suffered more corruption than usual. Cf. Siggel (1950: 51): ﻋﺎﻗﺮ ﻓﺮﺣﺎ /ʕāqir qarḥā/ sy. ﻋﻜﺮﻛﺮﺤﺎ /ʕakirkarḥā/ Anthemis pyrethrum L. (Comp.)
And Dozy (1877-81: II.152), who says: "Le nom du pyrèthre est d'origine araméenne עקר קרחא /ʕāqir qarḥâ/ {also written in Syriac script} et en arabe il faut l'écrire en un seul mot, avec l'article ﺍﻟﻋﺎﻗﺮﻓﺮﺣﺎ /al-ʕāqirqarḥā/ …" {i.e. "the {Arabic} name of the pyrethrum is of Aramaic origin: עקר קרחא /ʕāqir qarḥâ/ {Dozy also writes it in Syriac script}; and in Arabic it has to be written in one word ﺍﻟﻋﺎﻗﺮﻓﺮﺣﺎ /al-ʕāqirqarḥā/ …"}
Stephanus in his Breviarium writes: Puretrõ … hacarcaraha [[1]]
All the different forms encountered in the witnesses are imperfect attempts at representing the word ﻋﺎﻗﺮ ﻓﺮﺣﺎ /ʕāqir qarḥā/. The letter 'h' is often used by Simon to indicate the sound, absent in the Romance languages, written in Arabic with the letter ﻉ, called ﻋﻴﻦ /ʕain/ and transcribed /ʕ/.
The same word is given other entries Harcacharach ; also Barcharcaraha, where Stephanus's rendering is discussed in more detail.
Wilf Gunther 16/06/2014